Would You Like to Come in for a LaCroix?

A Late Night Invite

painting by @gretchengammel

I wasn’t expecting to meet someone that night.

I was expecting to see nature and have my brain restored and my heart freshened.

It had been a long day. Thursday night. I was impressed with myself for sitting at the computer and pounding out a story. This one, We Are Dying. The story was all about how it’s really good for you to get outside. I reached a point where I was nauseated with the words on the screen, and I was close to the end. I thought, “I don’t know if this is garbage or something, so I’m gonna go for a walk and figure it out.”

This is a walk I had done approximately seven hundred and eighty times over the two years of living at my house — up a few residential streets, and then up a mountain. The mountain is actually just a hill, but it feels like a mountain, because it’s rugged, and there’s rocks on a dusty path, with tall grasses on the side. The landscape is such that you can decide to stay on the rudimentary path, or forge your way through the clumps of grass and rocks and dirt.

When you get to the top of the hill, there’s a view of Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters, white and pristine. There’s a little place where you can sit on some rocks that are in the form of a bench, and have a cigarette, if you like. Fifty percent of…