The Road to the Woods

I have to prod Mully to get up in the morning for out early morning walk.  A 65 pound dog that doesn't want to wake up is hard to move.  We have a ten minute drive to the top of the mountain.  At 5:30 am the world is dark, very dark.  We enter the forest and no one else is around.  We are alone. I have to walk slowly because I can barely make out the path.  The world is silent.  I am alone in a forest surrounded by a sleeping big city.

 Too many cop shows flash through my mind. "Why was she on the mountain alone at that time?  What are those stains on her hand? Is the sketchbook a clue?" they say after her body was found by a jogger.

The sky changes from indigo to a pale blue, there are some red streaks from the rising sun.  Mully and I are joined by joggers, walkers and other dogs.  The silence is gone.  the forest is no longer scary and mysterious.  No one murdered us.  Mully and I go home, she to her breakfast and me to my coffee and easel. Mully  has her first of many beauty naps and I struggle to capture the menacing moment.

The Road to the Woods