Well, not today. So, he strode along boldly, thinking all the time of the water fountain. He didn’t notice how people noticed him, but they did. He was already well over six feet, with long skinny legs and knobby knees and huge feet. He poked up into the sky, conspicuously giraffelike. His skin was a warm acorn brown and had its own quiet light. The look in his eye was so open and welcoming, it was hard not to smile as he went by. When he reached Third Street he stopped and gazed up at the two bronze panthers which stood on their pillars, their backs to the park. They gazed out at Brooklyn, cold and kinglike. Danton thought what it would be like to meet them alive and in person and something sputtered in his memory like a match coming alive. It was a memory of the two cats creeping towards him through the snow. A dream? But just as he nearly got the vision in focus, |the match blew out. He gave a shudder and turned toward the water fountain. Funny. He remembered a more ordinary looking water fountain. This one had a wide dark metal bowl and looked very antiquey. Around its rim metal birds and dragonflies peeped out of dark bronze leaves. The spout for the water was the open mouth of a metal frog. Had they put in new fountains during the winter? He reached to push the button on the side, but just before he touched it, a realization smote him between the eyes—blam! Almost certainly this water fountain hadn’t even been turned on yet. The fountains were never turned on till all danger of frost was over and this was still March. It had snowed just a couple of days ago and spring kept not arriving. He could almost hear Feenix and Eddie laughing at him.
Deleted Scene - An Alternate Beginning to The Tiltersmith by Amy Herrick Page 3 Page 5