The Darkness

"In those days there were places out there the trees grew so thick that it was to be twilight at noon."
--Description of the old Atchafalaya Basin

We pushed a loaded kayak into the sluggish river as sun began to set. Great flocks of birds rose out from the trees, winging off to roost overnight in the upper parts of the canopy. The normally raucous swamp was unusually quiet and the sensation that we were disturbing the silence of a church or library was strong.
Darkness settled as we slid through the water. Here and there pairs of eyes reflecting our lights rose quietly from the black waters and re-submerged. It was difficult not to imagine that beneath us, invisible man-eaters glided, masters of their domain, offended by our intrusion.
We stepped into much more than a swamp, we stepped into a place deep inside the mind, a scared, primitive place that exists in all of us. We all discover this place at some point in our lives, it happens when a person realizes abruptly that he's alone, it happens in the instant before a crash, and it happens in the darkness.





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