How to saunter

When I walked outside onto the back porch this cool clear morning at six, cradling my coffee, I watched a quartet of deer saunter single file across the road from their home in the big field. If you want to learn how to saunter, watch any small herd of deer unafraid of hunters walking the streets of a small town. The quartet stopped along the route to taste spring blossoms and green weeds, then moved on toward downtown. An hour later as I got into my car and drove to the first stop sign, the quartet casually reappeared from an alleyway and jaywalked into the road in front of me, once again single file, then continued down the road just ahead of my car. We ambled along like that for a full two blocks. Everything was still: the streets were quiet and contemplative, and I had nothing pressing. I only had to follow the leader, who kept looking back like a kindergarten teacher with one unruly kid on a field trip. After foraging for groceries, I drove home, went upstairs, walked out to the back porch again and found the four deer at that moment returning home on their original trail. Normally I hate to feel like a fifth wheel, but today I felt perfectly at home as a fifth deer.