Turkey Tracks

“Mom wildlife, wildlife!,” she was screaming as she was running in, as I was hobbling to run out to her and put my boots on at the same time. It is so exciting to see nature, as it should be free and not at a zoo. This is what we live for and someday, if we can ever afford a house, we hope to live with woods around us… She was so loud it ran away, so we followed the tracks like detectives. A turkey! We finally saw it ahead, its black body outlined by the whitewashed world, and it was huge.
The nor’easter snow whipping around our faces, we watched the turkey until it disappeared down over a cliff and we didn’t want to continue trudging through the accumulated three feet of snow. Holding hands, we suspended reality for a bit, simply standing in the middle of the snowy field watching the flakes light onto the branches as the sky mysteriously got darker and darker and the snow started to glimmer in the moonlight. The world’s so quiet during a snowstorm, the snow muffling any sound of reality until we can almost, just almost; hear each flake hit the snow pack.
Ah, that's where they came up with the word tranquility…