geo geller

TREATMENT

(narrative)

When I was a young boy, I remember taking long walks behind our house

catching frogs, butterflies, salamanders and watching the insects

crawling around. I spent hours walking along the stream, jumping from

rock to rock. Secretly I thought I was a mountain goat. One day, while

taking a walk towards the mountains behind our house. I was singing my

favorite song “… Home, home on the range, where the deer and the

antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word…” when I

thought I heard someone. So I said “hello” and to my surprise someone

said “hello” too.  I thought this is very strange… I didn’t see

anybody, so I said hello again… and they answered hello back. “Where

are you?” I said, “where are you?” came back. “Over here!” I yelled,

looking all around… “Over here!” someone yelled back. Here I am, I

said… here I am, he answered.
This was very strange… I thought, where could he be? So I climbed a

tree, and said, in a loud voice… “HI!” and he answered “HI!” Still I

couldn’t figure out where he was… I’m up a tree… I’m up a tree…  I

climbed down and walked a little ways and said hello again. But this

time… there was no answer… While I was walking I saw the biggest

bull frog ever… I thought I heard somebody off in the distance…

“hello”, I said… and it answered “hello” back… the bull frog croaked

and it croaked back… now I was scared,.. I ran home and told my

father, who was plowing the field. I told him that there was somebody

out in the forest and to come quickly… He said he was busy but he came

anyway. We found the path I made, my father was part Indian and taught

me many things, especially how to follow a trail so I wouldn’t get lost.

He tought me that the forest and the animals were our friends, and to

watch things very carefully. We walked until we came to the spot where I

thought I left the bull frog… I told him to listen as I said hello.

nothing happened, we didn’t hear anything. That was strange and yelled

hello even louder and still nothing. “We needed to walk a little

further.” I could tell he wanted to go back to work but he said ok, We

walked a little and I said hello and still nothing… My father said,

maybe he left or moved on. We walked to where the tree I climbed was and

I yelled “hello”. I smiled when it said “hello” back… My father

laughed. I wondered what was so funny… had he not heard somebody say

hello… there was somebody there!… I said, hello, again, proving my

point. He laughed again at my seriousness and said hello himself and

this time a man said hello back. Then he said hello I’m an echo and the

man said hello I’m an echo. What’s an echo? I asked… He said in a loud

voice…. echo echo I’m an echo… echo echo I’m an echo. Echoes are

voices of the mountain… they are like water mirrors except they speak

to you when you speak to them. Be careful what you say and do… so only

good things will come back to you… While we were walking back I

thought about what my father told me and what I would say the next time

I met an echo.
copyright geo geller 1990 ver. 2893

geo geller 280 9th Ave, #20B, NYC 10001 email- geo@geogeller.com