Singles #15

The Puget Sound […] is a sound or complex of inland marine water­ways in the north­western part of Wash­ington, United States, extending from the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca south to the head of the sound at the state capital of Olympia. It branches out from Admir­alty Inlet and Decep­tion Pass in the north to Olympia, Wash­ington in the south.[…] The term is also used to mean the general region of the sound, including the Seattle met­ro­pol­itan area, home to about 4.2 million people.

Puget Sound’, Wiki­pedia

A photograph by Gareth Jelley

Ever­green College, Olympia, 2007.

When I took that pho­to­graph I felt so com­pletely at ease, so com­pletely free from the idiocy that had sur­rounded me only a week or two earlier, that I didn’t fully register where I was: I could have been in country for all it mattered at the time. I had escaped some­thing, and where I had escaped to was almost incid­ental. That is how I remember it, anyway, looking back after two years. I’ll have to go back and explore the waters around Olympia more care­fully someday, taking in the place for what it is, appre­ci­ating its unique textures. Hope­fully Teresa, the girl sitting on the beach, can come too.