She’s quiet which is unusual for her. Did I just catch a twitch of her upper lip?

The rest of the group is huddled by the waterfall, laughing and taking selfies. She hopes she won’t be caught sitting alone in the back of the photos.

The scenery is beautiful, the water calming, she tells herself. But she can’t help but feel a bit winsome for her own kin, the people that make her feel like sunshine. This whole retreat was supposed to be about her return to a spiritual home, connection. But she feels disjointed from the herd.

What is she meant to learn from this then? Her stomach rumbles, she didn’t pack anything to eat on the hike. The joy of solitude, perhaps? She rolls her eyes to herself- she gets enough of solitude.

One girl in the group spills bubble liquid into the water. Humans are such a blight on earth, she thinks abstractedly. She knows shes part of the problem and that makes her cringe. Another girl blasts rap music from her phone, distracting from the sound of the water leaping over rock.

They aren’t her people. She feels somewhere out there, her people do exist, but today isn’t that homecoming.