- 4th
- November
- 2010
hedgehogs
Oh Tumblr, I feel as if we don’t know each other anymore.
I’m living and working on an orchard in Central Otago. It’s going alright.
My room at the Cottage seems like an addition. Instead of a proper foundation, there is a gap from the dirt to my floor. Sometimes I catch creatures unaware, and they scurry under the house when I open the door. In order to get to the main area of the house (kitchen, bathroom and TV room), I have to go outside and walk through the front door because my room is not connected. There are plum trees out the front door and sheep in the backyard. Rainbow colored grass grows beside the stoop. It’s completely silent at night except for sprinklers, sheep and Night Sounds.
One night I venture outside, but instead of turning right towards the main house, I freeze. The sidewalk is lit by the moon, and even through my sleepy, myopic gaze I can see something on the path. A comma with its curved tail sharply straightened into a snout scoots around the concrete. It shuffles from one side of the sidewalk to the other sampling whatever tasty items it finds in the flower beds. In the nighttime silence, its nibbling and soft padded paws are almost deafening. Completely unconcerned by my presence, it even allows itself to be pet before it trundles off across the gravel road into the orchard darkness.
