Brains!

I could hardly stand leaving that river. I left easily in a hot car, climbing back through the hills, dodging deer and iffy parts of the road. The thing I love about rivers is that I always feel clean coming out of one. Even amongst the river bugs and moss. I came out and the 90 plus weather dried you instantly but your skin, despite the sunscreen, was river fresh-river strong. We waded out, it never got more then waist deep, just deep enough to swim against the current. The fish nibbled at our ankles and we gritted our teeth and bore the freezing parts searching for the warmer currents. I realize now I need to be near water, within easy driving distance of a body of water, something that moves and changes, but is always constant. I look at the pictures of us in the shade smiling enjoying the blanket of sunny air moving through the valley. I notice in my eyes the rivers reflection, painted across the glass iris. James’s eyes are brown just as they have always been. Like the woods solid around him, just a tinge of light penetrating from the canopy. In this terrarium James is the land and I am the water. Or something like that.