Good afternoons are hard to come by in winter. I'd spent a good day at Vyšehrad with Pavel. We'd heard church bells and the unimpressive echo of his shouted voice in the darkness of the main gate. We laughed and shared cigarettes, walking shoulder to shoulder like brothers in some ancient myth. We held hands, twice, to warm up our fingertips. We walked in the footsteps of prehistoric men--I with my camera, and Pavel with his feet, walking slowly as if attempting to read Braille with the soft underpads of his toes. But he was wearing shoes. It was too cold to walk without shoes. But I think he was reading with his toes, anyway, Im convinced that he can do things like that. He's that sort of a person. He speaks to animals as well, and he calls them people. It was a good afternoon. We talked fast. We walked slowly. Following our descent from Vyšehrad, we warmed ourselves with coffee in our favorite (expensive) cafe. We shared a cake, and discussed Karel Capek, and the promise of spring. We smoked one cigarette between us, and as the afternoon ended, the time of our departure drew close...closer...and at last, with crumbs in place of the cake we'd eaten, we made our farewell for the day. I'll see him again, before I leave; he's my friend and you always see friends more than once, but what I'll remember is the end of a good afternoon, and the sight of him standing in patient wait for the next tram--to Andel perhaps, or to city regions beyond. **** This is more of a memory than a photgraph, posted here in the spirit of the other "memory shots" I'd posted before. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and hopefully everyone has a great Christmas. I thought I'd be going home for Christmas, but as fate would have it, I'm spending Christmas in Prague...probably eating carp as well!