|
Written by Brian Olsen
|
|
Monday, 08 August 2005 00:00 |
As if the chill of the nearby glacier had frozen gravity itself, my body hovered in space and time. Twice before, my body had managed to overrule my mind’s crazy idea of plunging into this abyss, but now I had fooled my legs into committing to flight.
Over the previous six hours, the mountain air and intense sun had tapped the water out of me, bottled it up, and peddled it to clouds driving by. The so-called intelligent part of my body had rationalized that the coming plunge would solve all of my problems. I would no longer feel thirsty, hot, or dry.
The first to send the message that the water was a wee bit cold were my toes. My body tightened, trying to fly away from the water’s surface. Deeper below the darkness my legs slid, the water’s meniscus not crawling, but speeding up my skin.
Soon all but my head had plunged into the milk of the glacier, what months before had been snow that I would have skied across. My lungs took a final, innate gulp of air before my body completely disappeared into the depths, pulled by the anchor of my own mass.
Rapidly the water numbed my senses and I felt warm all over. I began to buoy to the surface. My head shot into the air, breaking the surface, and sending clear water into the sky. Water dripped from me into the lake from which it had come. I drank. Coolness embraced me from within and emanated out to my skin, which was slowly awakening from shock.
Around the lake, all was still. Above me loomed tall, steep cliffs. The glacier basked in sunrays, melting a bit more into the lake, its child. Soon the sharp western cliff cut the sun in half, casting the already red expanse of the valley gold. A shadow moved across the lake. Quickly its darkness engulfed me and the air grew cold. I began to shiver.
As I climbed out, water dripped onto the rocky shore and into my waiting shoes. Before embarking down the mountain, I gazed at the scene. The glacier meandering down the valley, with the lake lying idle and tranquil and its feet. The cliffs standing guard over this, nature’s artwork. I smiled, but then continued on my way. |
