V

 V. 

That's as far as I go. All that I show. For me to know. 

This was the first white morning of the year and, as it happened, the morning after the arrival of my new black shoes. They're grippy. I tried them out in the new snow. 

The day commenced on time, in darkness, with the making of my bed and it was just barely light when I arrived at my workplace. And work there I did, well into the next darkness, while all the people looked to be so fragile and endangered. 

Perilous is the road. Tender are its travelers. I loved them all then, but silently, and from a distance. 

V.  I told that to myself. The first letter in a new way. The leaf nearly turning. I tried it on for size and it fit.