{"id":167,"date":"2017-06-11T04:16:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T04:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/?p=167"},"modified":"2017-06-11T04:16:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T04:16:20","slug":"june-11th-miles-to-go-by-exbex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"June 11th- Miles to Go by exbex"},"content":{"rendered":"

The painting has sat, unfinished, for months.<\/span><\/p>\n

It looks empty. Hutch keeps telling himself that that\u2019s kind of the point of the winter landscape with a field of snow and a grove of trees in the background. He had had an English teacher in high school, Mr. Smith, who had worn blazers with elbow patches and required students to memorize poems. Years later, Hutch still remembers his favorite:<\/strong> Frost\u2019s \u201cStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

The woods are lovely, dark and deep<\/em>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the line that Hutch has been trying to capture for months. Some interpret it as a longing for death, but Hutch has always seen it as an appreciation, an acknowledgment of something beautiful, however unknown its depths may be.<\/span><\/p>\n

He gazes intently at the canvas, at the dark background and the evergreens trimmed with snow. It looks empty. He taps a finger on an unopened jar of paint; he\u2019ll paint some stars perhaps, or the aurora borealis.<\/span><\/p>\n

The darkest night of the year\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

He puts the jar down. It feels like he\u2019s straying away from the poem, to contemplate including so much light and color.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hutch runs a hand over the back of his neck, feels the way his hair is sticking and curling. It\u2019s the summer solstice, and the temperatures are climbing, hinting that the next three months will surely be scorching.<\/span><\/p>\n

His mouth feels suddenly dry and it\u2019s only partly due to the heat.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain irony, Hutch thinks, to attributing darkness to death. When he closes his eyes and thinks about death, it\u2019s always fully illuminated, red blood streaming into the street while the sun refuses to stop shining.<\/span><\/p>\n

The phone\u2019s ring jars him out of his thoughts. There\u2019s a slight trembling in his hands as he picks up the receiver.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHutch. It\u2019s the solstice. Ya know what that means.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that the sun\u2019s not setting for hours, Starsk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt means beer and barbecue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The trembling in his hands has stopped. He smiles. \u201cIt\u2019s ten in the morning, Starsk,\u201d he chides. I\u2019ll be over within the hour<\/em>, he thinks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDaylight\u2019s a wastin\u2019 Hutch,\u201d and there\u2019s a smirk in Starsky\u2019s voice, the kind that\u2019s always like a flash of color among shades of grey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlright buddy, give me your list. I\u2019ll pick everything up and be over soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Hutch has finished writing the list, his fingers are stained with blue ink. He doesn\u2019t scrub it off.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The painting has sat, unfinished, for months. It looks empty. Hutch keeps telling himself that that\u2019s kind of the point of the winter landscape with a field of snow and a grove of trees in the background. He had had … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fic","category-gen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/solstice.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2017\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}