The Morning I Woke Early
I don’t know what pulled me out of sleep at that hour. No sound, no particular urgency. Just the sudden fact of being awake at four in the morning with the certain knowledge that more sleep wasn’t coming. The room was dark the way rooms only get in mountain country, where there are no streetlights […]
The Language of the Mountains
In the early hours, before the ridge fully wakes, there’s a stretch of time when things feel settled. Nothing in a hurry to start. Step outside and it’s already going. Wind moves through the trees in uneven passes, crossing one ridge and slipping into the next. A dog barks once down in the hollow, then […]
The Compass
I found it in the junk drawer the way you find most things worth keeping, while looking for something else entirely. It was my father’s compass, brass-cased and heavier than you’d expect the kind a man carries when he believes the world can be accurately read. The needle was still good. I could tell by […]