24. Up to the Present Day

noreply@blogspirit.com (Stephanie Fey) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:25:00 +0000

Time to conclude my recollections of the astronaut and bring things up to the present day. Deep breath. Okay, here goes.

I started jogging. That’s right, with all the gear on. When you have so much delicious countryside around you, then it almost seems crazy not to. But, there again, when squirrels, deer and rabbits stop what they’re doing, and look at you with that aloof stare that seems to say “and the purpose of that is what exactly?” then you begin to suspect that the real craziness lies in what you’re doing! The way to deal with that feeling? Run away from it. Run fast, run true and keep on running! Look at me, look at me! I’m a slightly hippy gazelle!

The late afternoons were great for running; the mornings blustery and with a gritty, piercing rain. With the sun lowering so that its rays streaked and flashed through the trees and through the clouds, the countryside around me and the Clansman took on a silvery tinge that, at times, turned to flame. A tickling and relieving breeze would also occasionally soothe away what little heat the day had to give. The landscape gaveth and it tooketh away with every step. In essence, this world seemed balanced: waves of meager warmth mitigated by waves of coolness, and all the colours of the day presented in a perfect light that left no combination of the universe’s palette untouched and unpresented. Except darkness – blackness – that element of the world’s character was nowhere to be seen. Barred. Banished. And in response, I breathed. And how I breathed! At those moments, the world never seemed to me more perfect. And I never felt more comfortable within it. Not bowed. Not dimmed in the slightest.

The odd afternoon shower would roll by though. On those days, the brightness would step aside quickly and make way for a disconsolate and broody greyness. If I was out jogging on those occasions, when the sky suddenly flipped its colour chart, then it was a matter of getting back to the house as quickly as possible. Especially if my run had taken me part of the way up the mountain: the pathways could turn muddy and slippery, fast-moving rivulets opening up in minutes, and the way home would rapidly become treacherous. I certainly had memories of that!

One afternoon, just a couple of days ago, the sky turned in such a way. My mind was wandering through a collection of memories that drifted into fantasies as I ran, and I think I was late to realise that something in the sky above me had rebelled, and that ominous, bulging, solemn grey clouds had at some point terrified the daylight to an early bed.

I was about a mile from home, but on a path that I was familiar with, so although I turned instantly for home I was not overly concerned. The first tiny drops of rain began to fall when I arrived at the…

Nicole Kidman stars in: 'The Astronaut Dropped' - part_one_the_story_so_far

24. Up to the Present Day