Ellie and I walked along the embankment above the reservoir, the late winter afternoon sunshine casting long shadows across the snow. The air was crisp but we didn’t care. Me bundled up in my parka. Ellie clad in her winter coat of fur. The snow and cold and fresh air didn’t bother us.

And then, a truck drove along the road that circumnavigates the middle of park. East to west, west to east, an entrance and an exit at both ends of the 5 kilometre long stretch of greenspace.

It was black. A fancy pickup.

It drove onwards as Ellie and I walked eastwards.

And then, it appeared again, driving east to west.

Funny how one truck can trigger memories of a time long ago.

I am running along the trail along the top of the embankment. Ellie is just a pup of a year or so. She dances and prances beside me, happy to be outdoors, happy to be with her mistress. She liked to play with her leash. She liked to grab it in her mouth and tug in a desperate attempt to get my attention and pull against her tug. It was one of her favourite games.

I was trying to teach her not to do it. Or at least, to only do it when it was an ‘appropriate’ time. She always had trouble with the timing but on this day, she is simply running beside me, her tongue hanging out, her tail wagging furiously with the simple joy of being outside.

And a truck drove by.

And I kept running.

And then it drove by again in the opposite direction.

He phoned me, sometime around the 3rd or 4th time of my seeing the truck drive past.

I told him about it.

Go back to your car, he said. Do nothing until I call you. Lock the doors. Drive away. Hurry.

I was only halfway through my run. Only halfway, I told him.

Listen to me. Do as I say.

And I did. Do as he said. Just as I did as he said the hundreds of times before, and the hundreds of times after until one day, he was gone and I no longer had to do as he said.

I was reminded of those times yesterday when a truck drove east to west, and then, west to east.

I saw the truck. Noticed its return and unbidden, thoughts of him scurried into my mind. But they didn’t capture me. They didn’t hold me in the thrall of the terror and pain of those days long ago.

Yesterday, a thought entered my mind unbidden and I was reminded. And I smiled and I rejoiced in the pure freedom of being past those days of silent terror.

I walked and Ellie pranced and then, I spread my arms wide and with the sun and the sky and the trees and the grasses whispering in the breeze as my witness, I danced.

Oh how I danced in the freedom to be, wild and free, my face uplifted to the sun, my arms spread wide to embrace the world all around me.

Oh how I danced.