#theshortestdays (3)

At sunrise on the days near the solstice, pale winter light shines from the river across the city, across our terrace, into the living room, down the hall, into the bedroom, and all the way to the far wall.

The solstice sunrise also lines up directly with Papineau, the main "north-south" street we cross every day. Everyone knows that Montreal is not laid out on a north-south grid, and there's a local saying that it's the only city where the sun sets in the north, so far off-axis are the streets. I always thought the street arrangement grew as it did because of the natural orientation of the river and the island. Now I wonder if perhaps someone long ago actually did notice the sun's rays on the solstices, but I've never heard anyone but my husband say a word about it, as we wake on these shortest days in a bedroom that feels as if it should be hung with mistletoe to please the pagan gods.