Danger
Walking is always less arduous when two kids come along. Tyla and Ryder joined me in a trip down to the beach, even though it was an overcast slightly cold day. Once again we headed straight down to the tracks.
At the bulldozer, Ryder was off before I knew it and actually made it right up and into the seat before I got there to lift him out and down. Then he took a right down into the new subdivision being built along the water. He scurried underneath a bar with a sign warning keep out and past a danger sign and then he ran to the big hole in the ground where they are putting in the sewer. Good thing it's surrounded by an orange plastic fence or he likely would have been in the hole.
A little farther along the tracks are some old buildings lining the shore. A couple of old cabins still left on someone's property and this old store front with a clearly outdated NEW sign and not a new thing in sight.
Along the tracks we ran into a strange gypsy woman wrapped in hippy rags and carrying a dry dead stick with a gray lump on it that fainly resembled a flower and she moved with the strangest kind of grace sweeping a foot back every once in a while as if to erase the tracks she left in the dirt and her face is completely shrouded with a thin cloth that surely she can see through but this culture is not used to such displays of privacy, creates suspicion except for Ryder who doesn't even notice her until later out in the middle of the field she dances and whirls like some broken limbed bird and caws a strange noise which Ryder immediately echoes perfectly and the two of them caw back and forth to each other in language of their own.
Not much farther along the trail an elderly gentleman comes by. He grins way too massively as he passes me, his joy at the innocence of such a wee one. Just grinning and smiling and moving strangely, hey he says to Ryder, hey he says louder and Ryder without a care in the world takes what he offers in his extended hand, a few pennies. I stand close by, wondering if I should step in and explain to the old man how this kind of behaviour in this day and age is frowned upon and doesn't teach the child a proper lesson about being wary of strangers and I just stand and let the pure innocence flow, the child will learn his own lessons as time climbs the scale of karmic reckoning for us all.
The city has just finished raking the beach leaving concentric lines to curve to a single willow tree growing in dry sand. Ryder wonders where the people are, in summer I tell him, soon, he is starting to understand the seasons now. He knows winter is over and it's spring and we are watching and waiting for the trees to turn green with leaves. Then, ever the danger zone traveller, Ryder climbs the tall lifeguards' chair. Tyla scurries after him to keep him safe and they both try to pose with the empty beach behind.
At the bulldozer, Ryder was off before I knew it and actually made it right up and into the seat before I got there to lift him out and down. Then he took a right down into the new subdivision being built along the water. He scurried underneath a bar with a sign warning keep out and past a danger sign and then he ran to the big hole in the ground where they are putting in the sewer. Good thing it's surrounded by an orange plastic fence or he likely would have been in the hole.
A little farther along the tracks are some old buildings lining the shore. A couple of old cabins still left on someone's property and this old store front with a clearly outdated NEW sign and not a new thing in sight.
Along the tracks we ran into a strange gypsy woman wrapped in hippy rags and carrying a dry dead stick with a gray lump on it that fainly resembled a flower and she moved with the strangest kind of grace sweeping a foot back every once in a while as if to erase the tracks she left in the dirt and her face is completely shrouded with a thin cloth that surely she can see through but this culture is not used to such displays of privacy, creates suspicion except for Ryder who doesn't even notice her until later out in the middle of the field she dances and whirls like some broken limbed bird and caws a strange noise which Ryder immediately echoes perfectly and the two of them caw back and forth to each other in language of their own.
Not much farther along the trail an elderly gentleman comes by. He grins way too massively as he passes me, his joy at the innocence of such a wee one. Just grinning and smiling and moving strangely, hey he says to Ryder, hey he says louder and Ryder without a care in the world takes what he offers in his extended hand, a few pennies. I stand close by, wondering if I should step in and explain to the old man how this kind of behaviour in this day and age is frowned upon and doesn't teach the child a proper lesson about being wary of strangers and I just stand and let the pure innocence flow, the child will learn his own lessons as time climbs the scale of karmic reckoning for us all.
The city has just finished raking the beach leaving concentric lines to curve to a single willow tree growing in dry sand. Ryder wonders where the people are, in summer I tell him, soon, he is starting to understand the seasons now. He knows winter is over and it's spring and we are watching and waiting for the trees to turn green with leaves. Then, ever the danger zone traveller, Ryder climbs the tall lifeguards' chair. Tyla scurries after him to keep him safe and they both try to pose with the empty beach behind.
posted by dave at 7:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home