“The disease is in your head,” Lila said.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means, what you think about yourself, about the world, is not the way the world is.  It’s not the way you really are.”  Lila looked into the trees as sun slanted through and lit the sparkling snow with a crystalline flash.  “It’s a trap,” she said.
“I feel the trap.  But what does thought have to do with it?”  JJ watched the sun go in as suddenly as it appeared and the snow was frozen and drab under brooding trees.  “This new age shit is not for me.”
“Well, what is for you?”
“Everybody’s walking around talking about being present, being in the now.”  JJ kicked at some frozen snow sending a fist-sized chunk skittering into the trees.  The snow had melted and refrozen several times and was crunchy and abrasive.  JJ thought it was like walking on Pluto.  Except for the sun.  And atmosphere
“What’s wrong with that?  The norm is that we all walk around wishing that things were different, that we had more of this or that, money or power or kids.  We wish things hadn’t happened or wish different things happened.”
“I coulda been a contender!”  JJ yelled into the trees.
“Exactly.”
They walked up the broad path that used to be a road until it was too expensive to maintain.  JJ thought that was an improvement.  Let nature take it back from the cars.  “Hey, here’s a question,” he said.  The sun was peeking through again.  “What are you thoughts on the Yeti?”
“Again with the Yeti,” Lila said.  “JJ, there are no Yetis in Massachusetts.”
“Sasquatch, Big Foot, Yeti.  Different names for different places.  What would a mysterious manlike giant living in the wilderness of New England be called?”
Lila thought and said, “A Yanqi.  With a q and an i because the Pocumtuck named it.”
“That’s terrible,” JJ said.  He smiled then looked slowly into the trees on both sides.  “But you oughta get present to the fact that the Yanqis may be watching us right now.”
They crunched up the snowy path to the old parking lot that opened up to the winter sky and looked out over the interstate, the river, and a grid of frozen white farm fields sectioned by dark rows of trees.