Just Beyond The Mountains

I dragged my feet through the untouched snow. It seemed to be falling faster and faster. My camera hung from my neck  and bobbed up and down as I walked. My sneakers were soggy but I kept walking on. It was getting colder in the evergreen valley, and I only had a sweatshirt to keep me warm. 

I held out my hand and caught a  snowflake at the center of my palm. I watched it melt to a drop of water.

“There can be such beauty in simplicity.” I remembered what my father told me once. 

 I glanced up and saw the sun coming down fast. I needed to be at my  special clearing by sunset or I would miss it. I would miss everything.

  I ran.

 Hands outstretched beside me. I was an eagle flying into the sunset. I laughed out loud at the thought. Then louder.

 There was no one to hear me.

Even though I was wet and cold, it felt good to run. The wind gushing furiously sent a glorious chill down my spine.

The outline of the mountains became visible, so familiar. They made me remember the time when my father had tilted his head and saw these mountains in a different way. “If you look at them like this, the mountains kind of look like a face.”

 Our laughter had broken the silence that day.

I ran faster, and kept running until I could see the special spot where the trees parted perfectly to make a beautiful clearing. The one filled with memories, and laughter. 

Finally, I made it.

           The dancing treetops, breathtaking snow, and the sun lingering just above the horizon. The clearing. My clearing. My father’s too. Just as I remembered it.

  I  snapped a couple pictures of the view and sunk into the dead grass. I laid the camera down in my lap, and  took it all in for a few minutes, until the sun had collapsed into the mountains. I scooped my camera into my arms and took one last glance into the darkness, where golden light used to shine. No matter what, I would always know the way here. By heart.

 I ran home the same way I’d run here, hands outstretched, flying.  

Like an eagle.

I’d always remember this place. Just beyond the mountains.