Seeing Things

They drove up and away from the village and the sea but it was a peninsula so when they turned onto Not Two Road and again onto Karuna Circle and parked at the cul-de-sac and took the trail through the head-high woods, they came out once again at the sea.

A bench was bolted to the granite clifftop there, and there it was that Little Mac and Big Bertha had their picnic, keeping their gloves and caps and coats on and their napkins in their pockets so they wouldn't blow away.

"Champagne?" said Big Bertha. "Really? You were so sad only yesterday."

"Sobriety and Solemnity," said Little Mac, "those two won't bring anybody back."

He poured twice and they drank twice and then he flung the bottle from the cliff and when it splashed below he said, "And may they all be safe wherever they have gone and may all who close their hearts have them opened and locked open and may the pain come flooding in and set them right."

"To the children," said Bertha.

"I saw a thing as we was walking," Mac said then. "I wonder if you saw it too. A nude reclining on the ground. In ecstasy, it did appear."

"Were you drinking while I was working?" said Bertha.

"A frozen creek might have been what you saw. But who's to say? We're always seeing things. One sees an enemy, one sees a friend. And then the enemies and friends, they change places. They can do that, you know, because they don't exist all by themselves. Friends and enemies don't really exist. They just seem to, because we're always seeing things that don't exist, always making up stories to fit what goes on in our minds. Because our minds are so wild.

"We don't need guns, we need animal trainers.

"And yes, my dear Bertie, I did have a nip."

"You're still sad," Bertha said, "and drunk too. Come here and let me hold you for a minute. Then let's walk back to that creek. I'd like to have another look."


18 February 2018
Texas Jim
Dr. Bill Freedman Nature Reserve, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca