January Sunset

One last chance for perfection before it is lost forever.

Billowing clouds climb the sky. It is the golden hour, the favorite of nature photographers hunting magical scenes. I watch a flight of crows settle, adorn winter’s naked trees. My minds eye captures the flurry of wings.

My Canon SLR lens winks at them as I take a shot for memory’s sake. The population of crows has been decimated by shared West Nile and a new form of the flu the past couple of years. They no longer cloak the sky with their own cloud-like formations.

I’ve roamed this sheltered wooded area at length to find the best uncrowded views on warmer, less frost-bitten days. The chill wind follows every step I take. “Heyj there. Don’t you know this is private property?”

He’s an old guy, gut hanging out of red suspenders, white beard stolen from Santa Claus, temper definitely not. “Never a problem before. Is there one now?”

The first brilliant red streaks of the sunset adorned the sky as the gent;’s face blushed the same unlikely hue. “Bet your bottom dollar there is. Finally caught you, didn’t I?”

I couldn’t ignore the man. Neither could I let him stay where he was, ruining my shot. “Look. I’m not hurting anything. I just need a few more minutes to take a nature shot of the sunset. You can watch if you want to. Then I’ll certainly be on my way.” It was a mouthful of words. The old guy wouldn’t let them be.

“I’ll see that you do, you young whipper snapper. I’m standing right here until you’re through.”

He leaned one way, then another, sinking his feet into his spot. The wind picked up around us, dusting snowy stars into the coming twilight view. “You’re beautiful,” I replied, stunned by the sunset image appearing in the sky.

“That ain’t going to do you no good. I don’t lean that way, stranger, and neither should you.”

It made me laugh. This guy had more bristles than a porcupine. “Look behind you. You’ll see a surprise.”

“Not going to distract me, fella. There’s nobody here but us. I’d hear if there was. Get doing what you got doing before I make you go scat.”

In desperation, I reached for my wallet. Out came his firearm, almost old enough to be a flintlock. “Don’t make me shoot you!”

“It’s my wallet I’m reaching for!” I moved in slow motion, dangling it before his eyes. “You’re standing in the way of the perfect sunset. That’s what I came here for. Move, darn it, and I’ll pay you.”

The man looked up and behind him. I could hear the crack in the bones of his neck. “Would you look at that.”

“I would if you’d get out of the way, sir.” Any moment now and the sunset would begin to fade.

“That cloud looks like a racing fiery horse.” The old man’s arm raised to salute the sky.

I took the shot with him in it. It’s all that I could do, thinking maybe, just maybe I could delete him using software and still retrieve something from the day. I had enough previous shots of the area I could pull from to fill in where he stood. Except for where his head poked up into the perfect sunset sky.

There was always tomorrow. “Thanks anyway.” I sighed.

But there wasn’t. When I came back the following evening, a new fence stood in my way. /there are fewer good nature spots hidden within my city walls, and those walls keep reaching further out.

“Thought you might be back.”

There was my fake Santa Claus combing up behind me. “I’ll take your money, thank you, if you want another try. Beautiful day isn’t it? Those clouds are something else this time of year. I’ve got a gate yonder. If we hurry I can let you through before the sunset’s due.”

I nodded and did as he requested, handing him bills until his hand went back into his pocket. “Come on then. The bulldozer will be in the way starting tomorrow. Tearing the ground up for more apartments.”

This time he knew where to stand out of the way. I had just enough time to set up my tripod and aim my camera up into the sky. We both jumped as a full grown elk jumped the fence, raced with heaving breath, and stood ready to stand his ground with antlers weaving in warning.

“He’s going to get one of us and it’s not going to be me.”

The old guy’s movement in the stillness of the moment drew the attention of nature’s mighty warrior. Both fought each other for speed while running towards the gate. I had my shot.

The sunset filled the sky like a blessing from God. The background was the perfect frame of airborne snowflakes disturbed by the hooves of the elk. The bones of the trees were covered with white, velvety silk.

The cash I’d given for this opportunity lay fallen from the old gent’s pocket as he made his escape. Sometimes fate smiles, as I did, retrieving it on the way out.

The photograph won top honors at the annual National Geographic nature show. To me it is a precious moment caught before nature’s downfall from its last stand within my city’s walls. The stream the elk had been following is now covered up, unseen. What appears in any sunset heaven, is the glint of reflection from countless apartment windows, fracturing the delight.