Page 80 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #1

80 SNOWFALL

“No I am not getting up, I am not feed- It wouldn’t be very disciplined of me, now
ing you. No, I don’t want to hear it.” I did would it? Besides, what does it matter? Noth-
what I could to get the covers between the ing will ever come of the images. Pointless.”
two of us. Immediately, he tore into another Thoth didn’t respond. He merely jumped
string of sounds, the one that means “you will to the floor and headed for his dish.
get up because if you think for a moment I am “I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said. Snow.
going to let you sleep, you are sadly mistak- Everywhere. How long had it been since it
en...” and then he lovingly began to knead the snowed last? Three years? Maybe four?
upper edge of my ear. In years past, before first
Except there is no way light, JD and I would
to lovingly knead an ear. have been out in the
“God damn it!” I said as snow. It didn’t matter
I bolted up to a sitting how many times it had
position. “What the hell snowed. Just the fact
are you doing? Do you that it had was impetus
think that doesn’t hurt?” enough for us to grab our
First he purred, and cameras and take to the
then in more subdued world outside.
tones, he returned to One nyght, we wandered
the initial sequence of in the snow until we
sounds. I just shook my were so wet we started
head. “You know it isn’t shaking from the cold.
even 7:00 a.m. yet.” Still, we went on for an-
In reply, he uttered other hour. On another
another patterned se- occasion, amidst a week
quence. He didn’t care without power after an
what time it was. He ice and snowstorm, we
wanted to be fed. resorted to walking over
“Snow...” I said, look- four miles to Barnes and
ing out the window for the first time. “Damn, Noble so we could have coffee and charge our
Thoth. Why do I put up with your crap?” He laptop and camera batteries. In those days,
was rolling around on my lap by this time. He there weren’t many outlets in the café, so we
had won and he knew it. would sit on the floor in a book-lined aisle,
“Okay, okay,” I told him, as I kept looking laptop and chargers plugged in.
out the window. Looking at the snow. “Are they going to mind?” JD had asked.
My first impulse was to get my camera and “We’ll find out, won’t we,” I'd answered.
head out. “But it’s just another snow. Nothing Back in those days, fences were invitations
really special,” I told the cat. “And I have so to see what was on the other side. Doors were
much work to do. Work that needs to be done meant to be opened. “No Trespassing” signs
—like going through all the receipts from didn’t generally apply to photographers, and
last year and entering them into the system. if they did, they most certainly didn't apply to

nyghtvision magazine volume 3, number 1, WINTER 2013