Hummingbirds – Part Two

(Part One can be found here.)
Watching Ali bound off to a group of girls who seemed to have materialised out of nowhere, Louise could tell that they wanted to talk with her. Louise thought maybe she could wave and continue on home, but the girls were walking toward her. Well, better just to be friendly and cut this short – one of the girls stepped forward and Louise recognised her.

“We wanted to know the name of your dog. We always talk to him outside the bakery,” said the girl with long, brown hair.

“Your blue bicycle is really cool,” added the tallest girl of the group.

“We were wondering if we could see some of your paintings,” said another.

“Sure come on over tomorrow and I’ll show you some of my work if you’d like,” responded Louise. Suddenly it dawned on Louise that she’d never painted outdoors.

“How do you know that I paint?” she asked. The girls looked at each other and finally the brown-haired girl admitted that they had seen her painting one night while peeking in her windows. Louise was taken aback – and asked how often they had done this. “Oh, just once or twice when we’re down this way”, announced the tallest girl.

So Ali doesn’t bark at people he knows, Louise mused, but then began to wonder if he barked at anyone at all who came out this way. Before she had left Toronto, Ali had always barked at strangers. Louise hoped that he still did.

Hummingbirds – First draft

These early-morning hours were Louise’s favourite part of the day. She loved to lie in bed and watch the sun create intricate patterns on her bedroom walls. She let her mind drift wherever it felt like going. Eventually it always ended up immersed in planning the day. Louise laughed, thinking that she rarely stuck to her plan anyway, so what was the point in planning?

It was a perfect day to visit her favourite meadow, Louise figured. Spring had arrived early in the Kootenays and her meadow was alive with colour, scent and the sounds of returning birds. If she hadn’t promised to send her illustrations in tomorrow, Louise would have taken the entire day and hiked in the meadow and on the mountain trails. She never tired of being in the mountains that now engulfed her.

It always filled Louise with a sense of wonder that all she had to do was walk out her back door and she was surrounded by the tall pines, cedars and hemlock, with mountains looming as backdrop.

This was the reason why she had chosen this place, far from the way she had always lived. There was something magical about letting in all the sounds that now surrounded her. It wasn’t long ago that she’d lived in a high-rise apartment in downtown Toronto. There she had blocked out the constant noise of a city and mostly kept her head down as she rushed between her office and the subway.