Halfway down the Danube

Dawn

The boys got us up before 6:30 this morning. David first, as per usual. Then Alan a few minutes later.

When I come to get Alan, he stands up in his crib and raises his arms. He's two and a half, but tall for his age. I bend down and pick him up. He looks around: is Mommy in the room? No. He puts his arms around my neck and lays his head on my shoulder. Sighs a little: what can you do.

Going down the stairs, I paused to look out the window. The sky was still black, but just starting to go gray in the east. Two planets were shining brightly: Venus, low above an apartment block; Jupiter, a couple of handspans higher up the sky. Leaning forward to look at them, I could feel the cold coming off the glass. Outside, the puddles on the street had turned to white ice.

Half an hour later -- bottle, cuddle, diaper change -- I went back up the stairs, and paused at the window again. Now the whole sky was pale gray going to blue. The night was over, but the sun had not yet risen. I looked for Venus, looked again, and finally found it, fading to the edge of vision against the brightening sky.

In the tree across the street, three doves sat in a diagonal line, tic-tac-toe. They were motionless, heads sunk, round balls of feathers puffed against the chill. It had been a long, cold night, and it wasn't quite over yet.

There were things to do -- there are always things to do, in the mornings. But I stood at the window for a minute or two more, until an upper corner of one gray apartment block suddenly flamed into gold.

Posted by douglas at November 22, 2004 09:07 PM