Vignette: A Spring Day in Febuary
Breathing easy, he relaxed. The deer and groundhog playing across the field of brown high grasses at the edge of the woods enjoyed the same warm, blue sky afternoon.
The bicycle paved pathway carried strollers, dogs, Frisbee players and the retired by the headwaters of the New River. All were called out this special day.
Only he had seen the deer and sat quietly on the well-placed iron bench watching them. Mothers passed in conversation, skateboarders were rare and polite, dogs stopped to greet the old man; smelling no threat and more, they licked the heart wounds he never forgets.
But no one spotted the deer.
Dogs sensing nothing to fear wanted to stay, but away were tugged into each master's destiny.
Mussolini played on the front pages, 1930's music celebrated again.
Babies cried from under covered sleds dragged into tomorrows against their will.
Some where ignored; others scolded, a few placed in arms.
Still no one saw the deer.
Glancing at the cold oxygen tank by his side, thoughts of the end calling blended with thoughts of THE HARRY APE and Hank and Denzel in FENCES.
He had been Jimmy Porter.
Longing for a bit of anger to return, he sighed.
Even without his false teeth, he could still whistle. And with no one around, he did; playing a shrill note carried by the wind.
Farm boy language immediately noticed by the largest deer which raised its head in still statue and stared the old man down at 100 yards.
Time stopped.
One returned to feed, the other wanted to cry.
Suddenly, up the mountainside the groundhog panicked to cover; the old man could see no danger from his vantage point.
Never quite enough resources, never quite enough education, never, never, never enough discipline mixed with memories of splendor; stories and exploits so true no one would believe them; the blessings of war babies once realized and gone.
Fear broke his relaxation, affording to live, the gnawing feeling shared by billions gripped
his plexus breaking the silence as did the approaching Romeo and Juliet.
Only they and the dogs stopped in deference to the old man that afternoon. They smiled as did he cutting his quiet eyes across the field for them to see.
Clearing the tall grass in their first move the deer proudly, almost mockingly dancing, spread their wings; flying, speeding away from the off-leash German Sheppard rapidly stumbling down the hill to naught.
Pulling cellphones from their pockets, the loving couple were immediately joined by all.
Much more needs sharing the old man thought about two paths in a wood; collected his heavy burden, attached the life to his nose and walked on.
.........
Comments
A work-in-progress
Hope you enjoy.
I do, and please continue.
A sense of place and very evocative.
Thanks for reading...
sometimes words wish to flow like the Rogue river but they can be as hard to catch as a big Steelhead.
Thank you smiley ...
[video:https://youtu.be/ijftZIE9b7g?list=PLIYziAULhFZxdJWLf5_JFiLxu_jEuun7f]
Perfect piece, :)
intended to compliment your original and soulful writing.
Thank you again, smiley.
Nice
Enjoyed it.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Glad you did, thanks.
Quite lovely. We often miss the deer.
A nice start to a shortened day. Happy Sunday.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Good to see you...
Happy Sunday to you.
This happened to me IRL, almost word for word
First, thanks for the lovely read. I really enjoyed it from beginning to end, and I like the space. Thanks smiley7
except it was about ten yards from me as I rounded a corner of the drive. We both froze, at first I thought he might charge at me with that big rack pointed down, but then time did stop for, I don't know? A couple of seconds I guess, and then he just went back to browsing the meadow, and I started crying. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the beauty of nature, that was one of those times. Thanks smiley7
I should thanks google for being able to show where exactly, from a satellite in space. Let's see if it works from the link, look down from the corner it is steep.
Google maps satellite view
160 acres used to belong to a friend who worked three seasons with the USAP at McMurdo Station Antarctica. I got to take care of it for her while she was gone. She had a nice camera, I took this from her kitchen window one morning:
The first year at McMurdo she took her laptop, and because I was her IT support it ran Linux with the KDE desktop, and those nerds wanted people to send photos from "KDE Everywhere" so...
Ice breaker and Cargo in the background. It is approaching dark time there now, season is over.
McMurdo Station WebCam
Thanks
Cool beans...
Me, too; so splendid and happy to have shared a similar moment with you.
If divineorder and the bell read this and see Antarctica, we'd best pack our bags. Thanks for sharing.
Dare I interject two encounters.
Some years ago I traveled to Bozeman, MT with a friend to attend a physics conference. On the way there we spent the night just off a forest road north of Yellowstone. As it was late when we arrived we opted to jus "sleep" setting up in the cab of my Toyota Hilux pickup. As the dawn brightened and we awoke we noticed a pair of deer across the way. To them we were backlit, and as we started to stir the buck became agitated. He put on quite a show of defiance, stamping and snorting for quite some time. The doe stood very still the whole time, until she decided to quietly walk into the thick forest. The buck soon followed with several backward looks and angry snorts.
It was only after they had exited that I "saw" it all from their perspective. Given the lighting, our heads must have looked like a pair of very large eyes in the face of a huge yellow creature staring them down. We then proceeded to laugh ourselves silly.
About ten years ago I (and my wife) drove from Ashland back, late in the night, to our camp at Hyatt Lake reservoir. As we crested a rise we saw a deer in the road and we slowed to a stop. The deer did not move, as it did not know we were there. It was looking away from us as we had crested the rise and it has fascinated with the shadow on the trees to the North. I think it was trying to Grok the huge deer shape the had so miraculously appeared. As it stood, transfixed, I gently eased the pickup forward. As the road was not level nor flat the shadow moved about a bit as it grew a little larger and the deer reacted as though the huge interloper was about to do something unacceptable. As we got too close the deer must have heard us. He suddenly turned his head. He registered shock, jumped, and disappeared off into the dark.
Thanks for sharing those close encounters...
the deer shadow, one can easily imagine.
I miss Ashland, a lot. Those were good days: the high mountain lakes, the fishing, the park, Shakespeare and a toddling son.
More thoughts...
thanks you again for bringing old memories to life this morning.
Hey, have you taken the flight out of Ashland to Seattle? Straight up, you have to hold on to the seat, astronaut style.
Last night we watched a plane take to the air.
Linda noted that all of the valley is in the flight path of the planes. Then, a minute later, we watched a plane follow a rather steep angled spiral trajectory as it escaped the confines of Bear Creek Valley.
I wonder if pilots talk about this airport. I have flown out of here only once. I helped my daughter drive a "new" car to Ashland when she was as at SOU, and flew out early the next morning. It was a direct to Denver flight. I would like to fly to Seattle sometime as the route parallels the Cascade Range, the views are great.
I am a creature of place, so I plan to publish lots of stories about sailing, hiking, bicycling, and driving around the area. I want to get some reasonably high quality video equipment for that project.
Created images of my Father sitting and watching wildlife.
The last few years of his life he was on oxygen and would sit on his back porch, with a dog at his side, to watch the deer and quail. I have seen tracks of the deer herd, but no animals yet. Winter was hard this year. A couple of them were desperate enough to enter the hay barn for feed.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Sweet, thanks for reading snd sharing
I have not heard deer snorts for some years.
My neighbor and I discussed yesterday, where are the larger herds that walked through? 6-10 does at a time. Also have not heard coyotes this year. What is happening? No gunfire to explain this. Barred owls have not yet voiced, either.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.