Defining Moment

What if the defining moment of my life came in Japan on that overcast day near Mount Fuji in 1985? 

Remember that day?  Kevin and I jostling about in an absurdly windowed bus as the bus swayed across rumpled terrain near Mount Fuji.  My camera sat on my lap.  If the clouds parted, I would catch the great mountain swathed in low clouds.  What more spectacular than Fuji?

We boarded a ferryboat on a lake settled into the green foothills near the summit.  We slipped quietly across dark water.  Even as heavy clouds pushed down firmly and touched against the calm surface, a local guide assured us the boat would provide an unrivalled view.  The clouds would part.

I held my camera in hand.

Our guide told us we would soon come to a place where the foothills fall back to a notch that reveals “the most beautiful view of Fuji in all the country.”  In all probabilities, I would have this opportunity only once in my life.  The boat sliced over the calm, reflective surface.  The hills fell away.  And I looked up into the sky to see nothing but the slug-colored underbellies of the thick clouds smothering entirely the high mount.

I have a photo of Kevin grimacing.

--Mitchell Hegman