SMOKEY

It is a rare occurrence when on my morning walk I encounter someone and am happy to see them. At best it is a nuisance because Chaucer gets all crazy, at worst, it is an intrusion. The morning, as stated before, is for me a much needed meditation time, a time for breathing and listening. However, this man sometimes appears out of the forest.

I am going to call him S.M.O.K.E.Y. A: because he smells terrifically like cigarette smoke, and B: Spirit Man Of Knowledge Ethereal.... Yup. I have only seen him a couple times, and I have walked the old dirt roads of that park since I was in my early teens. Every time I have seen him he comes at me sideways...right out of the woods... literally, he walks out of the woods, not down the road like a mortal would. I think I may have mentioned him in a previous post at some point. The last time I saw him I was miles into the woods and he just walked out of behind an old oak tree. This time, he came out of an especially dark grove of pines. Oddly enough, its not creepy. I know it sounds all stalker and preyish, but he is a really nice guy. He always has this point-and-shoot camera with him and we compare pictures. He speaks really slowly and every time he has met me he has spoken about indigo buntings. This seems trivial, but on my list, they are the king of birds: black feathers that shine bright blue due to the diffraction of light through the hairs of their feathers. I have always wanted to see one, and he just seems to have scores of pictures of them on his camera. He is the Spirit of the Woods after all so that seems to make a lot of sense.

I saw him this morning, and as always, he had a treat in his pocket for Chaucer. He also had stories. He walks a ten mile route through the park every day. He has fed moose, he held a baby grouse in his hands, he rode a bear, bronco style through a wandering troupe of girlscouts... alright, maybe not that last one, but he has pictures as proof of the other two.

We talked for about ten minutes this morning. I admired his new pictures, he probed my knowledge of gold finches, and he walked away, down the road and into the woods on the right. And that was that. Gone. Just another mystery.

I am also including a picture of Henry. He rushed out into the freak hail storm we had for 30 seconds today. Exactly what I wanted to do too.

db