I’ve been hearing voices lately. Maybe it’s just the sound of the wind through my parka; you know how it is, you walk head down, oblivious to your surroundings, trying to present the smallest possible surface to the freezing wind as it howls down the street. And maybe someone said something as they passed. It is hard to notice friends passing when the snow is swirling in your eyes.
Then, of course, there is the slipping and sliding; your eyes are again down, studying the ground in front of you, alert for any slippery patches of ice trying to trip you up. Unless you know what their boots look like, it’s easy to pass your best friend and never notice.
Montreal is such an insular, lonely place in winter; a huge contrast to the gregarious, fun-loving people you see in the warm weather of Spring-Summer-Fall. It is this weather contrast that makes us Montrealers love to parade on St-Catherine Street; or sit for hours with friends on a restaurant terrace having a beer and watching the world pass by.
But that’s the past and the future; it’s been snowing for forever in the now; so it feels very disconcerting when you’re trudging through the snow on St-Catherine Street and you hear your name being called. Not like a friend would say it “Hey Noah, how you doing?”, but rather like someone calling from far away: “Noooahhh.” Of course, you raise your head and look around, but there is no one nearby… It does make you question your sanity.
If this was all it was, then I could easily ignore it; but in the last couple of days, like the weather, it has been getting worse. Other words have been called out, like the number forty… Again, like from far away. It’s strange because that’s what the temperature feels like, minus forty degrees Centigrade, especially with the wind chill between the tall buildings.
Then this morning, on the way to work, I heard a new word calling me… “cubits.” I had no idea what that was. Finally, it all came to a head on my way back to the office after lunch; the voice called as I was slipping on a piece of dark ice. I normally would have recovered my balance quickly and kept on going, but the voice distracted me, and I went down hard. As I lay there recovering from the shock, I heard the voice quite clearly… “Noah, build a giant Ski-Doo, forty cubits long. Save my chosen ones from the coming snow deluge…”
The weather report said that Canada and the northern States were in the throes of extreme cold and snowfall but as far as the voices go, Mom used to hear them too, didn’t she!
Hope you had a good Christmas!
Yes, at one time I think Mom did hear voices, like angels talking to her, but that stopped once she lost her faith.
We had a wonderful Christmas here with Thea here; I hope you had a great one with your family there as well.
Yes, an ice age is coming. First global warming. I am glad Noah is solving problems here, rather than going south. Sea is rising there.