Chasing Angels

[need2hunt]

I wrote this a while back, just thought I'ld share it here with some people that might be able to relate.

Over the years I've hunted alot of things and hunted by various means, I've had the priviledge to hunt with some great people and enjoy alot of good times but there's something about chasing angels that stirs my soul. I don't do it very often anymore, guess just everything else gets in the way and it's gettin to where I can't go out by myself to many days. So if you want I'll take you on a small journey, I just ask that you don't step to loudly, just follow me in the wind because where angels walk is where solitude begins.

They said the storm was coming and that night is when it would hit, this young Illinois boy prayed that this would be it. Shut his eyes on that December night and hoped for the best. Woke up the next morning and found he had been blessed. No school today, just a blanket of white with a good 5 inches that fell during the night. Long johns and flannel shirts an old pair of jeans that fit just right, and that was just the first couple layers to start this fight. Coats and gloves and boots and hat and I'm ready for that door, picking up the old 28 that my father always carried before.

Breaking the smooth layer of snow I headed west, crossed the road and then started the mile treck to were the angels roamed. Loading those same three shells that i carried so many times, now starts the hunt, still precious in my mind. It's over the fence and down the draw looking as I go, not ahead but down at the snow.

AT LAST I FOUND IT!! A place where an angel lands, now comes the fun part as I get to follow it across the land. Angels walk a funny way, they run and sometimes they walk but they always seem to go a way that I would never have thought. So down the creek and around the bend the farmers pasture lays, full of briar patches were the angels love to play.

I dance the steps they show me, following in thier path I can tell where they are going and soon it will not last. The final clump of briars, with a downed tree and a clump of grass, it's here the angel took us, and here the angel is, nows the time to find him come on my faithful friend. Kick the briar, then the next, why won't he show, maybe he's hiding in the grass as there's nowhere else to go. The grass is empty so that just leaves the tree but how can that be with the snow so smooth and neat. Just one step is all it takes as a cackle fills the air, the rooster flies from beneath my boots and takes to the air. My heart leeps into my throat with the angels scare. I try to knock the safety off but all i can do is stare and watch him cup his wings into the windy air. That's ok because the lil boy knows what he has done. He drops his head and starts to walk but no it's not to cry, he's looking for were the angels land so he can start again the ride.

-- I can't explain the peace that I found in those days. Just a boy walking alone in the fresh snow looking for a pheasants wing and tail feather marks in the snow. Solitude, quiet, cold they still stir my soul.

[Tominator]

Re: Chasing Angels

Great piece Gary, thanks.

I'll be doing that soon.