Misty

Does danger lurk?

Up before most sane people and out the door for his daily exercise regimen, Tyler wasn’t prepared for the damp, misty air he now faced. Within a hundred feet of his house, his glasses were covered with tiny drops of the mist. It wasn’t really raining, but just moist enough to cover the ground with a thin layer of dew. That’s good because it hadn’t rained all summer except for an out-of-the-blue thunderstorm that lasted four minutes, tops.

Forty-four straight days of 100-degree weather does a number on crops, lawns, and the human psyche, so a little bit of mist this morning wasn’t going to hurt Tyler McAllister in the least. Would the inevitable downpour come while he was walking? It didn’t appear to be the case, but he pressed on to help build momentum and keep his spirits up.

Problem was, he couldn’t see much the way it was now. And he also couldn’t remember a time when he did anything without his glasses. It had been that way since he was five, so thirty years of one habit is binding. He wasn’t blind with the glasses off, it was just that he had never done it and wouldn’t know where to put them safely now that he was walking. He could do basic functions without them but anything requiring keen eyesight was out of the question.

So, Tyler kept up his pace, not worrying about the rabbits and their offspring he was scaring, the snakes slithering behind him because they were no longer in their holes at such an unseemly hour, or the pack of four coyotes on a nearby mound waiting for him to take a step toward them. Even the two foxes eyeing him across the street wondered what someone like him was out on such an unsavory morning.

No, Tyler McAllister could only see two steps in front of him, and even those were vague and fuzzy. Like a modern day Mr. MaGoo, Tyler never knew the dangers that lay before him, behind him, and all around him. Those dangers didn’t exist, except that they did; he just didn’t couldn’t see them this morning.

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