the visitors
I remember when it was early Autumn at home in Redding, California. Back then, we lived on a couple of acres. All around us, our neighbors had a few acres or more. There were no "next door neighbors" per se. In late September or early October, the air would turn a little cooler. We’d pull out our our sweaters and jackets put them on for the first time that year. My brothers and I were homeschooled. So, my parents would wake us up early in the morning and we’d get started with our day.
We all kind of liked the colder weather. It made everything seem more cozy. Hot chocolate and hot apple cider would make it’s first appearance of the season. I would open the back door, after I got up, to check whether I could see my breath in the morning air or not.
The cold weather meant that my dad would have to find someone to buy a couple cords of firewood from. This, to me, was rather exciting. A stranger in an old, beat up pick up truck would pull into our driveway and dump his load of wood next to the house. Then, it was time to build a fort before my dad had us help him stack it on the back porch. We built some great forts. They weren’t very stable, but with a little imagination they turned into castles from the middle ages or maybe a bunker during WWII.
One morning, as my brothers and I were about to start our schoolwork, my mom called us over to the back window.
"What is it?" we all wanted to know.
"Shhh. Look," she whispered to us as she pointed toward the back lawn.
It was like a picture. There, right outside our window stood at least twelve deer. There was only one or two fawn. The rest were does. They stood there grazing with their legs tense and ready to leap away at the slightest suspicious noise or movement. Their coats were a light brown with just the lightest speckling of white. They seemed so graceful.
"They’re beautiful, huh?" mom said softly.
Our house was surrounded by tall oak trees and the morning light was filtered through the leaves. It seemed to make the whole scene surreal. The deer slowly browsing their way across the lawn with the gentle light around them made it look like something out of a coffee table picture book.
My brothers, my mom, and I sat there and were caught in spell for a few moments.
