Relief

It was so dark this morning coming home I almost missed him. Then a shadow of a man appeared hiking up the hill toward town and he was back. I hadn't seen the Solitary Man since the night the kid and the bear got into a fist fight near that trail. Then, too, that last time I saw him, he had his bedroll tied on top of his pack, so he could have been going somewhere. There has been a twinge of worry every morning driving by the trail and not seeing him. But that is one reason solitary men are solitary, they don't want anyone worrying about them. But as time passed since that night I have wondered about him often, even to the point of considering a hike through the woods where he lives to see if there were at least some sign he was alive. I would never recognize his face in person. I just haven't seen him up close. However the beard is recognizable and one night I saw a photograph of protestors outside the Republican convention and the one closest to the camera had a very similar beard. The caption said he was a minister from Alaska. The time frame was perfect, it could have been him. At any rate it was with some relief and a bit of comfort seeing him again, in the rain, hiking toward the town this morning.