{"id":222,"date":"2016-09-03T05:19:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T09:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/?page_id=222"},"modified":"2016-09-03T05:19:02","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T09:19:02","slug":"sojourn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/stories\/sojourn\/","title":{"rendered":"Sojourn"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many days the sun beat down on the earth and the heat rose high into the sky. \u00a0In the city, the parking lots, paved in black asphalt, \u00a0nearly sizzled. \u00a0It was a mistake to set tender feet on those surfaces. \u00a0\u00a0While man and beast abated their pace, trucks and cars tore down the highway at unfaltering speed, in unlimited numbers–machines. \u00a0Their drivers, in their air-conditioned interiors, took no notice of the engine stress, the oil coursing hotly through the motor, the heat of combustion, \u00a0the friction of the many turning, rotating mechanical wheels, cranks–pistons pounding hard and fast–each vehicle its own tiny, yet furious furnace, \u00a0racing this way and that.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Caught in a thermal updraft, \u00a0she floated and circled above the interlocking expressway. \u00a0The air rustled her feathers and tilted her wings as she gave in and glided, a respite from flying–tiny heart beating. \u00a0\u00a0She scanned below her looking for something green, alive and cool. \u00a0\u00a0She saw miles of rooftops–black mostly. \u00a0Visible waves of heat rose from the buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She tipped one wing and changed direction–moving north with the speeding traffic below her. \u00a0\u00a0To one side of the black-ribboned roadway, she saw the tower of green leaves. \u00a0Flapping her wings, she left the thermal wave, and dove down for a closer look. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The tower of green was growing in a bare patch of earth–surrounded by a rusting, chain link and barbed wire fence. \u00a0\u00a0Next to it, a grey brick building stood, its intricate slate and tile roof crumbling into itself. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She flew into the tower of green and landed upon a thick woody vine. \u00a0She rested a moment. \u00a0\u00a0A few grains of sand fell onto the leaves below her feet, . \u00a0\u00a0She turned her head to the left and right then hopped deeper into the vines. \u00a0\u00a0More sand trickled downward. \u00a0She spied a beetle and quickly plucked it from the vine only to lose it when her beak struck the red brick behind the leaves. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stunned, \u00a0she sat quietly for a while then began pecking at bugs–bugs busy, nibbling away at the vine. \u00a0\u00a0She moved about leisurely, eating, resting. \u00a0\u00a0Hours passed. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At dusk, \u00a0thunder, soft for the moment, \u00a0sounded in the distance. \u00a0\u00a0She looked upward. \u00a0The \u00a0large cumulus clouds, white against the bright scorching blue sky, gave an illusion of coolness. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A hot wind blew. \u00a0The clouds shifted. \u00a0\u00a0A spiral passageway appeared–all white, soft, cool, enticing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She spied it. \u00a0She darted out of the leaves, spread her wings and headed for the clouds, toward the sphere of coolness. \u00a0\u00a0The tower shifted, ever so slightly. \u00a0<\/span>The leaves on the vine rustled as the brick structure <\/span>toppled–to the ground. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Glenda M. Kotchish<\/span><\/p>\n

August 28, 2016<\/span>
\nI wrote this story over a period of days, hot summer days–a sentence here and a sentence there. \u00a0\u00a0I saw the brick tower on my commute into the city. \u00a0\u00a0A vine was beginning to curl around a tower and was claiming it. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A building, abandoned and falling apart, with a beautifully crafted roof stood beside the tower. \u00a0\u00a0At the same moment I noticed the cloud formations. \u00a0\u00a0From there the story came. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many days the sun beat down on the earth and the heat rose high into the sky. \u00a0In the city, the parking lots, paved in black asphalt, \u00a0nearly sizzled. \u00a0It was a mistake to set tender feet on those surfaces. \u00a0\u00a0While man and beast abated their pace, trucks and cars tore down the highway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":33,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-222","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions\/634"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}