Shanti. Her name says it all.  And, for the people she touched, saying goodbye has been bitterly painful.

“She was always the one who would stop and talk to you,” said a construction worker on Calle Tigre, setting down his wheelbarrow and carefully wiping a tear from his eye. “Did not matter who you were.”

*******

There was a long silence before Tuk-Tuk Hunk finally spoke.

“I have a lot of clients.”

He paused, staring out the front window of his tuk-tuk.  “Shanti was just Shanti. No baggage. Nothing holding her back. Nothing she was trying to protect.”

“I actually think she gave me more than I gave her. I just wish –“  he stopped, beginning to choke up. “I just wish I had told her that. And now I can’t.”

*******

“She didn’t remember it, but we actually were together once,” said Latrisha quietly, lighting a candle, her eyes dark and sad.

“It was a pretty solid day out, head-high. An outside set was coming in, and I was in the wrong place.  Got blown out straight away, trying to duck dive the first wave. Just got propelled, you know…..and then – suddenly  – there was this softness all around me. I was in her arms, deep underwater. No boards…..just me and her. It felt like the safest place I had ever been. I didn’t even know it was her until after I came up. She never saw that it was me.”

Latrisha stopped.

“That feeling, of her holding me. Sometimes you just don’t understand what has happened until much, much later, when you should have understood right away.”

“And by then, that person is gone.”

******

Kyle took off his spectacles and wiped them quietly. “I took a lot of shit for that article,” he said. “I was her first Consumer Report.”

“And…I knew I was her first. So I was gentle with her. So gentle. It felt like… such a privilege. To be her first ….. but the truth is, brother, it turned out to be my last. So many women – so, so many women – have gone through my Chest Hair Portal. But Shanti ….. she didn’t go through that day. She lingered. With her fingers. In my chest hair. She lingered. And goddammit, I wish she hadn’t.”

“Because right then, the old Kyle died. Just died.”

“And now, she’s gone.”

Kyle stopped. He had no more to say.

********

“It was kind of different for me,” said Ceibo, smoke rising softly beside him. “Shanti and I always met on a higher level…. She didn’t really care about my earthly form, or my sound healing. She just always came in all quiet and uninvited, like a cat, and curled up in my heart. And there was nothing to do but love her.”

Ceibo paused. “No one really knows this, but the giraffes are Shanti’s. The first time I saw her – the way she moved – I thought, she’s …. so…..giraffy. So I surprised her with these two little guys. And I said yes to keeping them here, cuz of course that meant she would come by more often.”

Ceibo drifted into silence. The smoke rose towards the ceiling.

“I’ll miss you Shanti,” he said softly, huskily. “More than you could ever know.”