{"id":1647,"date":"2019-04-16T09:21:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T09:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2019-04-16T09:21:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T09:21:06","slug":"a-brief-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/uncategorized\/a-brief-encounter\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief Encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"text-align:right\">3\/24\/19<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I sit on top of a rotting mountain of leaves with my head resting on a trash bag full of more mountain. I am alone, and have plants to pot. I watch the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the sporadic shouts from nearby disc-golfers, I hear an earthly thunder, hoofbeats multiplied and echoed, coming from the East. I watch as a white-tailed buck gallops into view, next to the stream below, and hurdles up the hill. I turn and see it cross the trail at full speed, and it disappears into the trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then another. And another, and another, until an entire herd is stampeding in front of me, careening up and over the trail, through the trees opposite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I raise my phone to record the spectacle (forgive me, I know), and for a full thirty seconds it continues. Dozens of deer, more than I\u2019ve ever seen at one time, hurtle through my field of vision, up, over the trail, and away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It isn\u2019t until they vanish from sight, their hoofbeats still fading, that the reason for their exodus is made clear: a black Labrador, large for its breed, bounds by the creek and follows, over the path, and away. I realize my phone wasn\u2019t recording and I lower it, watch the leaves settle back into relative silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6942-2-1024x334.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1650\" width=\"520\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6942-2-1024x334.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6942-2-300x98.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6942-2-768x250.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6942-2-1200x391.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 85vw, 520px\" \/><figcaption>The view from the rotting leaf-mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_7308-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1648\" width=\"395\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_7308-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_7308-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_7308-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_7308-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 395px) 85vw, 395px\" \/><figcaption>A sweet gum fruit, which I suppose is calming enough to fit this story.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3\/24\/19 I sit on top of a rotting mountain of leaves with my head resting on a trash bag full of more mountain. I am alone, and have plants to pot. I watch the sky. Over the sporadic shouts from nearby disc-golfers, I hear an earthly thunder, hoofbeats multiplied and echoed, coming from the East. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/uncategorized\/a-brief-encounter\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Brief Encounter&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/english\/228-2019s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}