Page 15 of Swamp Kings 2

“You can observe,” Cat added.

“Ask questions, observe, very good, what else?” Beth asked.

“Talk,” Cherie called out.

“Sounds like communication is a key way of learning one another?” Beth asked, getting affirmative murmurs. “Now let’s talk about how manymodesof learning there are.” She went through the five. “See, feel, hear, taste, smell. These are all learning tools we’re born with. Does it require skill to use them? Yes, it does,” she assured. “I can watch Bishop all day, hear him talk, feel him, taste him, smell him and yes, all those things provide me with information but what do I do with it? I have the data, now what? How doI use it? Well, let’s circle back to why we went about getting data to begin with, what was our goal?”

“Becoming one,” Phelony said, from the back.

“Yes! And why are we becoming one? What’s the point?”

“To beat everybody’s ass in the three-legged race,” Hurricane yelled, bringing laughs.

“Okay,” she called between giggles, raising both hands. “We definitely want to win but this race isn’t against others, it’s against something else. Who wants to try that one? Who or what are we racing against?”

She pointed to Seer when he raised his hand.

“Life,” he said.

“Yes! We’re racing against life and all it throws at us. And what are we racing for?” She glanced quickly all around.

“Our families?” sweet Claire dared.

“Yes!” Beth cried, happy. “Our families. Each other. We’re running this race against the struggles of life and we’re racing for each other. We’re fighting the good fight, we’re racing the good race. And because we race for each other, we’re also racing for?” She looked around and pointed. “Hand at the back.”

“For God.”

Beth struggled to see who it was. “I’m sorry, would you mind standing?”

She did and Beth recognized her. “Butterfly. Thank you, can you repeat your answer, so everybody hears it loud and clear?”

“We’re racin’ for the good Lord,” she said boldly. “When we love each other, we love Him, that’s how it works, it ain’t rocket science.”

“Amen,” Seer said, getting a full round of the same while Beth found herself suddenly way too emotional.

She returned to the podium and looked down at her notes only to watch them all blur together as her breaths shuddered in and out. “Sorry,” she gasped, wiping her face when tears fell. “I wasn’t… for some reason that sucker-punched me.” She struggled to look out at the faces, finding them all locked on her in worry and wonder. She held up her stack of papers to them and set them back down. “It’s the strangest thing,” she began, her words tight and shaking. “I worked… weeks on preparing this outline and… haven’t followed a single thing on it.”

She looked out at them. “I may have heard that a lot of the men thought this class wasn’t important given the situation in theworld and I… well, I get it,” she said, pushing up the volume in her voice. “I understand. But… after speaking to a certain spiritual swamp advisor, he confirmed everything I’d been feeling.” She shook her head when more tears fell and she wiped them. Bishop’s arm suddenly went around her, and she gasped on the rush of emotions. “I just wanted to… impart to everybody, somehow, that… the marriage… is the foundation of every family. A foundation set by God Himself. And within it exists the most... profound power,” she gasped, wiping another gush of tears, drawing strength from Bishop's strong arm around her still. “And when we protect that foundation, when we… nourish it and treat it as the sacred ground that it is, then… we are undefeatable. Because we have fulfilled something so profoundly simple, that the wise laugh at it. Something so profoundly easy, the strong pass right over it.”

She forced her gaze at the audience, steadying her breaths. “This love sustains everything. The world, us, the universe.” She nodded her lowered head. “Love makes us undefeatable.” She looked up at all of them. “With love, we are unstoppable. We are untouchable. Because when we become one with each other, we become one with God. And as our good Seer likes to say... ‘IfGod is for us… what power, what evil, what enemy would dare be against us?’”

“Hallelujah,” Butterfly yelled.

“Amen and amen,” Seer followed, along with the rest of the room while Bishop pulled her into a tight hug.

“Amen, baby,” he whispered in her ear. “That was fucking beautiful.”

“I'm so far off script,” she wept, hugging him back.

“No, no, no,” he soothed, kissing her lips. “You're right on it.”

“How long have I taken?” she whispered.

“You have plenty of time to finish. It’s just the nuts and bolts left. You ready to give them their workbooks?” he asked at her ear now. “I need to feel like I had at least alittlehand in this brilliance.”

She laughed, shoving him lightly. “You’rethe whole reason I’m brilliant,” she said on a fat sob.

“Mon Dieu,” he murmured, pulling her into his chest. “You’re gutting me, angel. And I fucking treasure that death.”

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