Walking. With The Apparition.

Posted on by Live & Learn

I was heading back to the car, done for the morning, and there he was. Or was it an Apparition?  I’ve never seen him in daylight. I’ve never been within 10 yards of him.

It’s been 1,118 consecutive (sort of, almost, consecutive) days on this morning walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a row.

He’s also a (mostly) daily walker at Cove Island Park.  But he’s a real walker. He walks from somewhere deep in the bowels of Stamford, and around Cove Island Park, and back again — has to be a 6-7 mile loop.

And he’s off early. My shot clock starts one hour before sunrise and most days, I pass him in the car, and he’s half-way done.

You can’t miss him. He’s lean, late 60’s, early 70’s. A brisk gait, both arms swinging high.  In his right hand, a heavy policeman’s flashlight, its beam slashing the darkness. No earbuds, smartphone, music players. Austere.

He never looks over, always looking straight ahead.

Anybody walking that fast, that heavy, has to be running from demons. (Hmmmmm. Lori Gottlieb: Everyone has demons—big, small, old, new, quiet, loud, whatever.)

And here he was, in daylight, less tall, less dark and Human.

He offers the first words.

“Get any pictures of the Swans?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve lived in Stamford all my life,” pointing across the expanse of the cove, “there used to be 50… 50 pairs of Swans, right here, in this Cove.” 

“Wow, that’s Something.”

I stopped there, staring at him, this Apparition coming to life. I bite down, choke down words that are itching to be released: “When’s The Ark coming back to the Cove to take this pair and their baby away.”

He fills the silence:  “Yes, it was Something. It’s almost as if He’s leaving just one pair behind. Giving us some hope that there’s still time to turn this – – there’s still time before we burn it all down. Just one pair left, with their little one.”

And as abruptly as my Apparition appeared, he was gone.

His back poker straight. His gait now restored. His arms moving to and fro. 

I watch him.

“Before we burn it all down. Just one pair left, with their little one.”

See more pictures from this morning’s walk of the Cygnet with Mom Dad on FB here. And the goslings here.

19 thoughts on “Walking. With The Apparition.”

  5. We move from this idyllic photo of this beautiful cygnet family to the apparition becoming a reality. Questioning…(everything)…if there’s one egg and it comes into life and there’s one healthy family, will there be more…….?

  9. Heartbreak here…. Such beautiful, hopeful pics and then, whamm, the bad news. But hope, we must. ‚Cause, hope dies last. I am often glad not to have small kids, I feel so sorry for all these hopeful young parents with their much loved children. What kind of a world are we leaving them…

  10. Oh man, pal, just saw this post (somehow missed it earlier). One really does wonder what, if anything, is going to penetrate at this point. I am watching a slow motion car wreck here in Florida…the developers are bulldozing down every last tree, pastures are disappearing under the asphalt, and people are bitching because the bobcats, alligators, rattlesnakes and coyotes are ending up in their backyards. My question? Where else can they go? And the latest move? The county is injecting contaminated water into deep wells ‘where it will no longer be a problem.’ I don’t know whether to weep or scream….

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