The noise from the fountain was deafening as water was shot from several surrounding jets. The memorial was the size of a full city block and honored its subject by featuring huge pools of water, blue, gigantic, and mesmerizing. The sound of the cascading water calmed me; this was always one of my favorite parts of the city. I sat in soupy air that clung like a wall, the sun blazed down onto my scalp. Across the street was the National Archives, the columns looked like individual skyscrapers holding up the flat gray stone. I came to sit on this bench in my favorite part of the city hours before Be Well started. Being there calmed my nerves and they needed to be calmed. As I have described to you, things didn’t go very well before the meeting. Chief among them the shift from Friday night into Saturday morning that I just finished telling you about. The young man who came into relieve me had found me in my chair, paralyzed with fear. I had managed to keep the screaming internal so that when I was found there wasn't any outwardly obvious terror.
