More Chocolate, More Challenges - Part I

There were many obstacles, challenges, and so much uncertainty, but in the end I made it. I had planned to visit my mother for a few days, but the snowy ice storm that had consumed the region was making my safe passage questionable. As I have mentioned before, leaving the glass prism of the city is not always as easy as it should be, but this time my mother and I had one sparkling incentive, chocolate. I was bringing her a sampling of my new and improved Regine truffle along with two new experimental flavors, and she was planning on whisking me up in her Jeep and heading straight for Oliver Kita's chocolate shop in Rhinebeck. There was only one problem,“ Well the schools are closed, which is not a good sign…” she told me with concern in her voice. I looked out my window and imagined what I would do with my three days off here in Brooklyn, same old thing as I always do I suppose. “ Maybe if we wait until noon, the ice will be melted and the wind will settle down,” she said, having sensed the disappointment hidden beneath my silence. “I’ll start packing!” I yelped as I jumped out of bed to brew my morning coffee.
Two hours later I was watching mountains roll past my Metro North window. They were like old ancient ancestors, I thought to myself, with thinning trees peeking out through their snow-blanketed scalps. The banks of the river were congested with large slabs of ice that crackled and split under the weight of the current and the beaming sunlight. As the train pulled into the station I could sense a change had taken place. Somewhere along the journey, within the insulated capsule of the train, I had unloaded a large portion of my mundane worries, checking them for future retrieval amongst the gray, and unfortunately inhabited, margin that segregate cityscape from rural terrain. I walked up to my mother’s Jeep, truffles in hand, and opened the door; “Now I don’t want to freak you out,” she said trying to sustain a façade of calm to shield her manicness. “Everything is fine, I’m okay, thank the gods,” she said taking a deep breathe and looking up at the heavens as if to give them (the gods) an appreciative nod. “ What happened?” I asked, having flashbacks to our past deer incident…