Carol Gano – Cold Coffee

Snow

Snow slush

Snow slush plus coffee

Cold coffee

Mit milch und sucre

It’s winter in the lands of the midnight sun and it is what we drink after a robust cross-country ski to the outdoor sauna – in the dark…

The coffee hardens us for the plunge. Toby would dunk himself in the Bondi Ice Bergs annual ice float, ‘just to keep his toes’ in he said. But, truly, his spirit missed the Northern Lights and those never-ending days. He claimed it gave him back all the hours he’d slept away during his Finnish childhood.

That final retirement move back almost killed him though. It took seven flights to get to our ancestral home. Seven times listening to the stewards mouth the safety blurb, seven snacks because the flights couldn’t afford the time for a ‘real’ meal. We left our last residence fully furnished, only took the clothes we might use in the harsher climes.

Now, host-holing through the knee deep powder, it was worth it. We’ll never go back and suicide in this pool won’t be investigated for months. My last evil pleasure!