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“Yes, congratulations.” I nod emphatically.
Everyone holds up their beer bottles for Billy and Skye. Then, in her sparkly silver hooded robe, Skye sprinkles salt around the pit to prepare for the ceremony. She raises her arms and says, “Stand. Take seven steps backward and turn counterclockwise.” After we do this, she yells, “Be gone! All influences and pain of others…be gone!”
Billy rolls out yoga mats, then announces we’ll be doing “Never Have I Ever Yoga.” The rules are simple: somebody says something they’ve never done, and if you’ve done it, hold your pose until Billy says, “Release.”
“The purpose of this game,” Billy explains, “is for us to stretch our minds and our bodies as we share with each other and ourselves what we have done in our lives. It’s to provide inspiration for what we may want to accomplish before we ascend to the higher plane.”
“And to feel the burn,” Maddox says through a cough.
Right.And I’ll probably be feeling more burn than others because I’ve had many life experiences. Which I don’t regret, at least most of them.
We start with warrior pose, which is a lunge with our arms over our heads. I better be able to get out of this one because my arms are already shaking. The first person up is Maddox’s cousin, Emily, who seems nice. With her beautiful smile that shows she’s a part of this family, she says, “Never have I ever been to Paris.”
The group groans before each one of us holds warrior pose, myself included.
After Billy releases us, we go into triangle pose, where we stand legs apart, bending sideways until one hand touches the ground. Easy enough.
Maddox is up next, and he takes a long dramatic moment as he appears to be trying to figure out what he wants to say. He’s wearing that signature smirk when he says, “Never have I ever slept with a man.”
I groan. “That should be against the rules.”
Emily, Skye, Lydia, and I all stay in position, eyeing each other in pain. Billy stays in triangle pose too, and when he gets surprised looks from around the group, he says, “I’m attracted to people, not genders.”
Skye looks at him adoringly, even as her head is upside down. “I love how you don’t see bodies, but souls.”
Billy returns the gaze, a twinkle in his eyes, and it’s pretty clear these two are meant to be together.
I think long and hard, and when it’s my turn, we’re all in a plank pose, which is like holding yourself at the top of a pushup. I’m prepared when I go with, “Never have I ever had a family campfire event.”
I fall out of the pose and take a long, happy breath. The group groans as they all hold themselves up, Skye looking like she’ll collapse at any second.
Maddox takes his hand away and reaches over and gives my arm a squeeze for support—no small gesture since he’s now holding himself in a pushup position with one arm. And it means so much. I know it’s not real, but somehow it feels that way.
When it’s Lydia’s turn, we’re all happy to be in tree pose, which is standing, but with one foot placed inside the opposite knee. She gets a guilty look on her face before she says, “Pass.”
“Mom, you can’t pass!” Emily scowls at her.
“I’m old, I’m a widow, and I can do whatever I want.” She lifts her chin with a stubborn smile before falling out of her pose.
“I’ll go,” Eric, Emily’s brother, says. “No point in fighting with Mom, Em. You know you’ll lose.” He smiles, and the familial resemblance between him and Maddox is striking. He hesitates, building suspense, and it seems he’s looking to nail someone in particular. His gaze lands on Maddox when he says, “Never have I ever fallen in the lake as I was trying to swat away a fly.”
“Ah, man. I knew you were coming after me.” Maddox shakes his head as he holds tree pose. The rest of us fall into a much overdue breather, then the group breaks out in laughter again—this time a little harder as the yoga is making us slap-stick. I can’t help myself when I say, “A fly?”
Maddox murmurs, “I thought it was a wasp.”
After Skye and Billy go, we return to the campfire and have our beers, something I’m not sure is an awesome mix with yoga, but I’ll roll with it. Maddox reaches over and brushes his finger down my cheek. “Enjoy this. It’s the only time I play a game I can’t win.”
“Noted.”
We sit around the campfire where there’s more laughter, more drinking, and more fun. I smell like campfire, booze, and mosquito spray, and I feel great.
Billy stands for his next announcement. “Now we will partner up and do a series of soul-cleansing yoga, which will open our chakras. Lydia, you’ll partner with Skye while I guide the session.”
Partner yoga?Now? I look at Maddox, concerned. Of course, he’s not.
“I have to partner with Eric?” Emily scowls.
Billy interlaces his fingers. “The brother-sister bond is a special, lifelong relationship. This will fertilize it, give it oxygen, and allow it to grow. Now. Let’s sit, our knees to our chests and flush with our partner’s knees, arms interlaced.”
