39 - Saw the ogre.
joneworlds@mailbox.org
I was over at Ellie's unit the other night, and it
was still dark in the morning as I'm wandering
home. In the faint light I see something dark
ahead in the road, and in another moment I know
it's in the shape of an ogre. So I leap behind the
old telephone switch box by the curb and wait,
peeking around as quiet and still as I can. It's
going pretty slow and dragging behind it something
I can't see. And it walks beside the side of the
unit there to the low retaining wall behind it,
lifts its big round body up over it and heads up
the hillside. I can barely make out its shape in
the darkness as it disappears over the ridge.
Sometimes, somehow, often, I forget these things
are up there. You don't hardly ever see them, and
maybe that's the danger - you get so used to the
hazard that you forget to think about it. But now
I'm reminded, and that we still have to do
something about it. One day.
And as I come out of my hiding spot to head home,
I couldn't shake this feeling like I saw something
else there too, barely. Someone, or something,
hunched and curved, waiting by the retaining wall
and then following the ogre up the hill as it
went. Close, like it was there to meet it. And I
thought I saw pointed ears on its head, like some
animal. But I don't know, I'm just not sure I saw
that. Or, maybe those patches Ellie had weren't
total duds after all.