A man in a snowy parking lot.
The Sierras
All around him.
Early morning.
8:35AM
The car packed.
The engine running.
Snow underfoot.
The Sierras all around him
Mount Rose gleams with fresh snow.
Sunny.
30 degrees.
It’s 38 in Tucson.
Arizona.
Over a thousand miles away.
He turns around and looks at the ski condos.
His mother in one of the apartments.
Along with
Three years of his life
Stashed there
In a lockdown
Taking care of her.
Every day the same.
Not watching the clock
But feeling his life disappear.
Tick tock tick tock.
Guilt for going, yes.
Relief for leaving, yes.
His mother didn’t want him to go
But she didn’t want him to stay.
“I’ll be fine.”
She doesn’t to come along.
She kissed him good-bye.
“Go. I’ll be fine.”
He wipes the snow off the car.
Snow from last night.
Snow coming tonight.
Tomorrow too.
The sun, the clouds, the high altitude, skiing, hiking, his mother.
The Sierras all around him.
Tomorrow not around him
Three years.
The room.
His room.
The four walls.
The one window.
Day after day after day.
His life slipping away by.
Tick tock tick tock.
He gets in the car.
Drives down the mountain.
Away from Mount Rose
To Lake Tahoe
South
Heading to Tucson.
Thirteen hours away.
ETA
Tonight
Tonight
Dinner with Francesca.
Her hand warm in his.
Life again.
Life again.
And the snow blew off the car.
Heading down from the mountains.
The Sierras behind him.
Not forever
But never more forever