Incident at Cunningham Falls

This time of year, the drive to Cunningham Falls on Maryland

State Road 15 climbs and twists through the the autumnal reds

and yellows until an unexpected summit is reached and a quick

descent follows with more twisty turns that are forewarned with

flashing yellow lights and a diamond sign with a squiggly black

arrow. Just past the summit there's an immediate turn into a

parking lot which is marked with a blue handicap sign. I pulled

in thinking it was the general parking to the falls only to be bemused

that all of the parking spots were designated as handicapped. It

was only later, while sitting on a rock beside the regular boardwalk

below the falls that I realized that the second boardwalk across the

rocky stream must have originated at the handicap only parking lot.

That realization came slowly as I observed a family group consisting

of a gangly boy of about ten and a soccer mom pushing a large three

wheeled blue stroller. The woman, whose pale face was pleasantly

rodential, sat on a bench and leaned her head back on the fencing at

the end of the boardwalk with quiet resignation while her son silently

hopped and navigated through the rocky stream-side ground. It was

then that I noticed her special child. I could only see his face through the

slats of the boardwalk face but what a beautiful blue-eyed face he had

and he seemed so content to stare at the high cirrus clouds that were visible

in the leafy gaps of the high red and yellow trees. I wanted so much

to be able to lay my hand on that boy's head and somehow allow him

to rise up from that stroller and run among the rocks laughing with his brother.

He just stared at the sky and yawned contentedly. Eventually his mother

rose, reversed the stroller and the family disappeared down the boardwalk

into the foilage. Eventually, I too rose and backtracked the trail to the parking lot.

-Gerry