#69 Ice Fields.

Jim, Lisa, Izz and Suzan were connected. Izz was in art school in Chicago and was dating Suzan. Jim lived in Wisconsin and Lisa was visiting him in Madison. They all met up in Chicago and spent the afternoon at the Art Institute. None of them were even 20 years old, but no one would notice they were teenagers. More aptly they were young adults and they looked like it.

They spent the afternoon taking pictures of each other inside the museum and in front of the ornate sculpted building where snow was gently falling. Jim applied lipstick and eye shadow earlier that day and looked beautiful. He had a thick ponytail and a strong sense of ironic humor. He spent a lot of time testing boundaries and this was something that Lisa, and others, found delightful. When he posed he vamped up his stance and squinted his eyes to look extra sexy.

He was one of a kind.

After lunch, Izz and Suzan moved to British antiquities for a while. When they returned Suzan looked a little sad and was slightly more withdrawn. Izz was a little manic, but that was not unusual and also part of his charm.

The four of them got into Jim’s van and head to his mother’s farm in rural Wisconsin. The girls were in the back seat, the boys in front. Lisa and Suzan had never met before today. Suzan was also an art student and a few years older. She was beautiful, like an Egyptian goddess with kohl eye liner and blond bangs. She smoked and had a very soft voice. Lisa was quiet and happy to be with these people on an adventure. The drive from Chicago took them to rural areas that could only be described as snow quilts held together by rows of pine trees, dried up corn stalks and long winding asphalt road.

When they arrived, at what was essentially Jim’s childhood home, his mother met them in the driveway and had a big pot of coffee waiting. They sat around and drank beer and ate a giant omelet Jim’s mom made while she smoked cigarettes and talked. She was also beautiful.

Sleeping arrangements were informal and they all piled into an adjacent barn that was winterized. Scattered all over the floor were watercolors from Jims’ mom’s art collection. Everyone knew they were valuable and would end up in a museum one day, which they did.

They placed sleeping bags side by side. Izz and Suzan were near each other, but not very close. Jim set a fire in an old wood stove and they talked before they drifted off to sleep. It was easy to fall asleep with friends.

The next day they went for a walk. They had down parkas and heavy-duty boots. It was very cold and they set out walking across the tremendous white ice fields, which stretched for miles ahead of them and behind.

They walked together for miles and miles.