One evening I was getting ready to leave the cottage and head home. I’m the world’s worst at leaving: I find it so hard to make the decision that everything is done and it’s finally time to go. That evening, too, I ended up leaving several hours later than I had planned.
For some reason though, I didn’t mind it at all this time. I’ll show you why.
As I drove past the field on my way home, I noticed that the sunset had coloured the clouds pink. I stopped to take a photo and then continued on my way. It was already almost 11 p.m. by this point, and the drive home takes nearly two hours. I took a sip of the coffee I had brewed into a thermos for the journey and continued driving.
I came to the bog. It’s a place we visit often, where I spent a night some time ago, and where the different seasons and the paths pressed into the sphagnum moss have become familiar to me. I glanced over and saw the pink sky stretching out behind the bog. I sighed and pulled over to the side of the road.
At the edge of the bog, the trees begin to thin out. The tall shrubs sparkled in the last rays of sunlight. The evening had been sunny, and the warmth of the day was still lingering in the air.
The intense scent of the bog filled the air. Wet, open patches of bog dotted the landscape, and the distant calls of cranes carried through the stillness. In the distance, I could see a bog pond. I squinted slightly as I looked at it. There was something strikingly bright about it, and it stood out clearly beyond the trees.
I started running across the wet bog in my sneakers. I wasn't prepared for this. The sun was just setting, and I knew I only had a few minutes before darkness fell.
You can probably imagine how the scent of Labrador tea clings to your trousers when you run trough it. The pond really was glowing white, as if something mysterious was about to happen at any moment. The magical atmosphere of the bog had never felt so strong. I reached the pond and stopped.
It was even more beautiful than it had looked from the edge of the bog. For a moment, everything else disappeared. I had only meant to stop for a few photographs, but suddenly I didn’t want to leave.
Steam rose from the dark surface of the pond into the cooling air. The pond was covered in lily pads, but wherever there was open water, the treetops and the pink sky were reflected on its surface.
I watched the steam move and slowly rising in to the air. It was incredible. The atmosphere was unreal. The familiar pond had transformed into a magical and secret place in the middle of the bog.
In the dim light of the pond, a family of goldeneyes moved in a line, silently but with purpose. They had appeared out of nowhere. What if they knew something I didn’t? What if this pond was a doorway to another world?
What if the bog has its own secret world that only appaers for a few minutes at dusk?
I stayed until the last of the pink light began to fade. Then I turned back toward the car, leaving the pond to the darkness.
The bog had grown dim, and for a moment, I felt as though someone was standing at the tree line, watching me. But strangly I wasn’t afraid. It felt more like I was the one who had wandered into a place where I wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps I had interrupted someone else’s evening — something not quite of this world. Perhaps something even stranger would have happened if I hadn’t been there.
Only then did I notice that my sneakers were wet and my socks were soaked too. I walked back across the darkening bog, following the same tracks I had come by.
In the car I could smell the Labrador tea that had clung to my trouser legs all the way home. I liked it. It felt as though I had managed to bring a little of the pond’s atmosphere home with me.
But I couldn’t shake the thought: what if the bog has its own secret world?
What if for a few minutes each evening, the bog opens a door to somewhere else. Maybe the steaming pond really was a doorway and the ducks knew the way through.
This post is part of the Enchanted Stories section. Click below to enter more enchanted worlds.
