Into The Woods Journal
Year 2024 — Week Twenty-Five
June 17
The Green Dragon
After a long night full of strange dreams, I welcomed the buzzing of my watch, the alarm I used to wake up. The mind’s ability to create characters, storylines, and absurd details during a dream was impressive. When I let the dogs outside, I stepped onto the porch, checking out the sunrise. The bats were fluttering above the yard, hunting for insects while all the songbirds were awake, making for a noisy but pleasant morning.
After a long day of working in the heat, yesterday, my wife and I recounted how sore we felt, as we sipped coffee on the couch, occasionally taking a moment to stretch our limbs. Forty minutes later, I was seeing my wife off to work for her last week of her current medical rotation. After she left, I knocked out a ninety-minute writing session.
When I closed my laptop, I raised the office window blinds and with my binoculars; I watched two deer feeding outside the tree line. The doe’s belly was enormous, still appearing pregnant. She stared in my direction, making me wonder if she could see me through the window. The other deer, a young buck with short velvety antlers, appeared less concerned. The buck had two long marks on its side, possibly from an old scratch on its fur. One line ran across…