Tara Greenly lay back on the fluffy mat, exhausted after a long day. School today had been nothing like kindergarten. She’d learned and done so much today, made new friends, and gotten to play a lot. These guys in the funny clothes were weird, but they were quite happy to let Tara and the other kids run around and play and do funny things, which meant that Tara liked them. Once or twice she’d seen one of the other kids get in trouble with them, but they’d deserved it.

As Tara was just starting to think of getting up to go bug Jamie, one of the other kids on her dorm floor, a hauntingly beautiful woman with alabaster skin and hair that was as dark as a raven’s feathers stepped up into the center of the courtyard, standing up on a pedestal so that all the kids could see her while seated. Tara thought about ignoring her, but something about her made Tara want to pay attention.

“Children,” she said softly, though it somehow floated out to Tara so she could hear her without straining. By their reaction, the other kids could hear her too because all the other conversations stopped. “Children, we are going to do another exercise, except this one isn’t for your body. It isn’t like going to school either, which is an exercise for your mind. This is an exercise for your heart. It’s very important that you pay attention and try very hard, okay? It won’t be easy, but I’m going to help you.”

After her introduction, the woman on the stage had the children all sit in a funny pose, legs crossed with their hands upon their tummies. Tara liked the woman and wanted to be just like her, so she made sure to pay extra close attention. Some of the other kids weren’t following along as well and needed help, so Tara started to get bored. However, the woman was very beautiful and Tara wanted to be beautiful too, so she made sure not to move. Once all the kids were paying attention and sitting properly, the beautiful woman told them to close their eyes. Now Tara was getting worried. Just sitting with her eyes closed was boring. Who would do that? How would it exercise her heart? The lady at her old orphanage had said that the heart only grew bigger with love. Was this exercise about love?

“Now, I’m going to walk you through a breathing pattern. Just follow what I tell you to do, breathing as I tell you. Keep your eyes closed while you do it.” For the next hour, or at least it felt like an hour to Tara, the woman made them do this funny breathing thing. It wasn’t that hard, simply the same pattern repeated over and over again. It made Tara feel as if she was getting lightheaded but not dizzy. It was weird and Tara wasn’t at all sure she liked it.

“Everyone has the pattern now, good. Keep following the breathing pattern. While you breathe I want you to imagine yourself surrounded by light, as if the whole world is made up of it. If you think about it you should be able to feel this light on your skin, like warm water. Now, as you breathe, imagine this light flowing into you with every breath. Instead of flowing out, it should flow down into you, ever downward, until you can feel it pooling in your tummy, just behind your hands. Breathe in the light…”

The beautiful woman went on like that, talking them through this funny exercise for what felt like forever, but eventually, Tara started not to care. Instead, she was focused on the light. It was so warm and fuzzy and every time she breathed it in she felt like she was wrapping up in a warm blanket and running around with her friends at the same time. She liked the feeling, so she didn’t stop, ignoring the woman’s voice and the other kids around her, simply enjoying the feeling of the light inside her.

At first, she felt the light in her tummy, behind her hands, but once she’d been breathing it in for a while it didn’t want to stay there. She didn’t see a reason why she shouldn’t let it out, so she did. It flowed through her with a ticklish sensation like standing in a rain shower, except the rain was coming from inside her. The sensation made her giggle and squirm a little, but she kept breathing, not wanting to stop drawing in the light. She liked the light.

A hand on her shoulder had her opening her eyes. “That’s enough for today, little one,” said one of the funny men. “You’re very good at this exercise, but we don’t want you to work so hard you hurt yourself. Just relax while the others finish, lay down maybe.” The man’s eyes were kind and his smile was wide. Tara couldn’t help but smile back at him and agree. She lay down, but she never took her hands off her tummy, where she could feel a warm heat just under her skin. It felt like a little secret, a little piece of the light that had decided to stay with her. She cupped it the way she would a baby animal, wanting to hug it to her chest, except that it was already inside her chest, so instead she hugged herself. She was so happy and warm that she was almost giddy. She ended up rolling around on the mat like a dog, rubbing herself against it and just acting goofy. She’d felt this way before but never this strongly. It was like the whole world was right and she was right and it was impossible to be anything but joyful.

Tara wasn’t the only one to experience strange or intense emotions, but her reaction was the most obvious. By the time the session had ended the funny men had told a half dozen of the children to end their meditations early. While being called out was normally a punishment, each of these children had the feeling that the funny men were immensely pleased with them. Unfortunately, sitting around waiting for everyone else to finish was boring, so it was inevitable that one of these children started acting up. Trevor Barker was not punished for this. Instead, he was taken to the sports fields and allowed to play. When the other children who were excused saw this, they immediately asked to join him.