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| Horicon 2015 (Photo by Gandalf) |
What sticks out in my mind: Gandalf saying during the ascent
of Black Mountain that it’s always nice to see people you care about
enjoying good marriages re: Blondie and me. Joie smiling down at me from the
boat as I put on my skis. Canoeing along the mountain shore past a waterfall.
Sitting on the front of the speedboat with Kit while she is between
times—between high school and college. Blondie’s eyes filled with freedom,
reflecting a merging with the lake, a lake he’d heard about for our first
decade together but never seen. The island, Horicon, which was perfect for us,
perfect for Blondie’s first time. It was a single site island, which meant we
had the whole thing to ourselves. We described it as “meandering.” It was long
and skinny with one point that ended in a pine-needle-framed view and one
point that touched a mini conjoining island. There were several swimming rocks
but one, facing the Western side of the lake, was favored. One night at sunset,
we all sat on another rock that faced the Western mountain range, and peered at
the top of the mountains where we could see the tiny distinctions in the trees.
I stared at the little fish, who were the size of the apostrophe symbol on my
keyboard, flitting around in a small pool in the crack of the boulder upon which
we sat. A few nights, we remarked upon the moon, which was mostly full. It often
hung out near the top of Black Mountain, and we’d stand on the dock and stare
up at it. The mountain stood before us peacefully, with the strength of years
of existence. Gandalf noted during a boat ride how strange it is to think of
how long the lake has been here.
My time at the lake was bookmarked by visits with close
ones. I glided into it in Narwhal’s presence the week before, and I extended it
by taking Kit home with me for a visit after the lake. Joie and
Gandalf came to our neck of the woods at the end of the Kit visit to finish
selling Ziva’s house, and all three left this weekend.
There was a moment early on our hike up Black Mountain when
we heard a rattle, and Gandalf realized that it was a rattlesnake. Black and
fat, it had the energy and youthful look of a teenage snake. We stopped for a
moment and decided to give it a wide berth, and I felt no fear because I was
thinking of J. Allen Boone’s Kinship with
All Life. I felt happy, almost riotous with joy, and peaceful, like
everything in the universe was okay and always would be.
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| The giants of the sky, the masters of the boat, Blondie and Gandalf |
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| Joie, Kit, Blondie, and me (Photo by Gandalf) |
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| Kit between times |
When you were young
you were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a
tower tumbling through the trees
In holy rattlesnakes
that fell all around your feet
