Ramblings and Ruminations

Hot Ice

"Another heist story?" My Muse made a face.

I knew that face. The pursed lips, the right eyebrow raised in an arc.

"What?" I asked.

"How many twists can you do on people stealing things?"

"Well, this time, my hero has to steal the diamond ring back from the crooks and get it to the victim in time for the big proposal.. So it's really a love story. A romance."

"Uh, no." She peered over my shoulder. "And that title? Hot Ice?"

"Stolen diamonds. It's an oxymoron. Oxymorons seem illogical at first, but in context, they usually make sense."

"I know what an oxymoron is." She looked out the window. "Why don't you write about the weather? That would be about as exciting."

"That has already been done.'

"Yes, but how many of them had a waterfall freeze in Georgia?"

Well, there was that. I thought about it for a minute. The developer of our community had built a nicely landscaped waterfall at the entrance. If I am honest, I think it is a bit ostentatious for this rural area. But it has proved a popular spot for the local kids to come for senior pictures and I know of at least one wedding that has happened there.

With this current cold snap, it has frozen for the first time. I grew up in the Buffalo area of New York so I wasn't so impressed by the ice. That's what happens in winter, right? But yesterday morning, I saw it through the eyes of my dog.

Gracie is a southern dog. A rescue. We don't really know her history but it is very likely that she has never seen ice in her young life until yesterday morning. One of our routes for her morning walk takes us on a path to the waterfall.

When we came around the bend and she saw the pile of ice, she stopped dead. It took some cajoling to get her moving again. She cautiously approached the pond at the base of the falls. A place she knew well. She would often get a drink there.

I watched her sniff it, lick it, and then tentatively try to dip a toe in it. I saw it through her eyes. And then something clicked and I was able to understand it as the local phenomena it had become.

We had laughed at the cars that stop in the road to gawk at the huge ice formations cascading over the rocks. At least one local news crew has been here. I suspect that many of those people had seen ice before. But maybe their kids were seeing it for the first time. And to have it here in their backyard had to seem a little strange.

I described my thoughts to my Muse.

"My job here is done," she told me.

Then, "Oh, keep the title. Somehow it fits."