An Anonymous Path

An unknown man with a snow blower

 An Anonymous Path

Yes, you remember the day!  The day of the big snow. The schools were closed.  The county offices too. But, that’s not the reason why, the reason why, I remember that day.  I remember that man.  I remember that man, the man who cleared my way.  That anonymous man, who cleared the snow.  The anonymous man I didn’t know!

The storm had passed and the going was not fast.  But, lots of people were beginning to go.  Yes. they were people I didn’t know.  And, now, they were people on the go.  I could see them go.  I could see them, going slow.  It can be slow work, the work of digging out of the snow. 

And, I was out too, out on a drive.  I was out driving in snow, I was driving on roads, so I could go, go through the snow.  I needed to go, go out to see.  I needed to go, go see someone I didn’t know. Yes, yes even see someone I didn’t know, in lots of snow.  And, the drive was not far.  Not far at all.  Not far, on roads that were slow, still slow because of snow. Yes, the roads were slow. They were slow to be sure.  They were slow, they were slow because, well, because of big snow.

I drove to a house to see two sisters, two sisters I didn’t know.  Two sisters who were also out.  They were out and on the go.  On the go, in lots of snow.  And, now the sisters were waiting, waiting in their car.  They were waiting for me, watching what they could see. And they were parked on the ice, the ice by the curb.  They were watching more people as they emerged.  They watched as the neighbors began to emerge, emerge from their homes, out by those curbs.

It was time to go in.  Go in through the snow.  That’s when I took a step.  I stepped in that snow.  The snow was so deep, that snow gave me grief.  It swallowed my legs, right up to the knee.  So, I had to shuffle along.  I had to break a trail.  And the sisters followed my path right in, right in through the house’s door.

The home welcomed us in and seemed to beg us to stay.  Its voice was tempting us and called us to play.  And, our stay?  Our stay, was not long.

We remembered the cold.  We remembered the hard walk.  And, we hadn’t given the neighbor a second thought.  No second thought, for the neighbor next door, the one blowing snow outside his front door.  The neighbor blowing snow, the one we didn’t know. 

We opened the door.  We opened it wide, and our eyes couldn’t believe what we saw outside!  The man next door, the one we didn’t know had come and gone, for how long, we didn’t know.  But, there it was.  A path very clean.  A path very wide.  It was a path he had been made, while we were inside.

Yes.  The man who was there, was now the man who was gone.  He was the man who, the man we didn’t know.  He was the man who had cleared the snow!  The anonymous man, who cleared the snow.  The anonymous man we didn’t know.

Yes, you remember the day!  The day of the big snow. The schools were closed.  The county offices too. But, that’s not the reason why, the reason why, I remember that day.  I remember that man.  I remember that man, the man who cleared my way.  That anonymous man, who cleared the snow.  The anonymous man we didn’t know!