by Gianna Angelique Ortiz
Her eyes were her future to see the things others cannot see. She was always different. Her eyes were a gift from God. As to understand and differentiate everything that she saw.
The rising of life cast a shining hue across the light blue morning sky. The golden fingers of light lit up the scenery around me making the view breathtaking. Her eyes met the sepia brown sign on the wooden post that read, ‘Old Croton Aqueduct, State Historic Park’. The robust trees and the magnificent lush summer green grass gave her a sense of joy because she loved nature more than anything.
The thought of the many animals living within these woods gave her a sense of endlessness. Her eyes looked around amazed.
Today just felt different to her because everything she saw had a different meaning.
After a while of walking on the trail and taking pictures of the trees and animals –mostly birds and squirrels, she had a small inkling that someone or something was following her. Even with that, it didn’t stop her from enjoying the walk and the nice breeze. She could see the wind playing with the leaves on the trees and feel the air move her hair back and forth from her face.
Her hair at one point blocked her vision. Her hands went to her face and brushed it away. When her eyes went back in front of her, her breath was caught away. She stumbled a bit back. A reddish-brown deer with cream-colored undersides stared at her like she had a headlight pointing at it.
The leaves rustled and made the hairs on her arm stand. Out from the woods, came a young deer who came to stand by the big deer. The young deer had cream-coloured spots on its fur. It trotted towards the deer who smiled at the beauty of her fawn.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’ She thought to herself.
The baby nuzzled her mother’s fur. After a second, both deers trotted through the grass into the forest. It was euphoric to see both the deers leaving without a care in the world. The love for one another was there in their eyes.
By seeing that, it made her think of her mother and how she missed her dearly. But even with the little sad thoughts, she knew she wanted to see more things on this adventure.
All that was heard was the soft patterns of sneakers hitting the ground and the birds singing in the air.
Thirty minutes rolled by when she reached a clearing and saw a tan colored sign separating two trails. The sign had an arrow pointing straight and the other arrow pointed to the right. Under the straight arrow it read, ‘Old Croton Aqueduct Trail’. While the other read, ‘Old Croton Aqueduct Dam’.
She really wanted to see the dam. Her intuition told her to go to the dam. Just like any person, she decided to follow it. Her eyes kept wandering around to see the birds hopping from tree to tree. The chirping of the birds was like music to her ears.
While walking she realized that she could see the Old Croton Aqueduct Dam from her position. The view was magnificent… seeing the running water flow down the brick wall. The water running down the wall was a small flow while the water going down the big rocks was a huge water flow. This was history… it told the story of what people went through to get this built.
‘I can’t believe the Old Croton Aqueduct used to be the water supply for New York. I would’ve thought it was used for a hydro plant.’ she thought.
A sudden low chirp whispered into her ears. She looked down at her feet and saw a baby bird looking at her. It didn’t fly away which she thought was weird. She bent down on her knees and held her palm open so that the baby bird could jump into it. When he did, she picked it up and moved her hand to show the bird the dam.
“Do you see this glorious view?”, she asked. The baby bird chirped in reply which made her smile.
This was a gift from God. Her eyes were witness to this beauty-nature and the animals. Her eyes saw everything that needed to be seen from the robust trees to the admirable dam. She could see 3 and understand why others really loved this place. This was going to be her new favorite site to visit.
