Leaves of Autumn

[17] Leaves of Autumn

Chapter Seventeen

If I asked you to fly away with me now, would you?  Could we just run far, far away?  Or even sprout wings and take off into the sunset.  At least those options would give me some more peace in my mind.

            I was leaving Lake Gloria with promises to return. 

I slowly made my way out of town when one of those crazy flashbacks started.

            I’d never forget the amazing people I had met at Lake Gloria.  Some people were truly beautiful inside and out. 

Now I was off to meet with the one person that made me feel beautiful inside and out.

            For starters I’d never forget Eve.

***

            Her crazy long blonde hair was tied in a bun, somehow working, and shaping her round face making her blue eyes stand out.

            We giggled as we dressed up in the crazy costumes she owned.

            “Oh, I even have a kimono!” Eve exclaimed, running out of her room.  She returned not too long later with a black kimono covered in crimson red flowers.

            “It’s beautiful!” I exclaimed.

            She smiled.  “Want to try it on?”

            I looked up at her with big eyes.  “Can I?” I asked eagerly.

            Eve giggled and said, “Of course.”

            So I put on the kimono, Eve tied the obi for me and we went outside to take photos.

            “Oh, I know the perfect tree!” Eve said.  “Take your shoes of.”

            I took off the crazy shoes I was wearing and ran through the forest with Eve till we reached a tree that had pink leaves slowly falling from it by the lake.

            “It took me a while to find this tree,” Eve said in pants, trying to catch her breath.  “I was always mesmerised by it whenever we went to the lake.  I spent many months trying to find it.  It’s so beautiful.”

            I slipped the shoes back on and posed how Eve wanted me too, laying next to the tree in the pink leaves that were on the ground. 

As I watched the leaves fall and Eve snapped away, I reach a hand out to grab one.  It had a papery texture.

            “It’s not a cherry blossom,” Eve said.  “But it still gives the same effect.”

            I smiled at the leaf, then closed my hand around it.

***

            I’d never forget Abigail either.

***

            “So, Abigail, what stories do you write?” I asked her.

            “Oh you know... this and that... why?” she asked, gazing up from her journal.  Her long red hair blowing in the wind and staring at me with her grey eyes under her square glasses.

            “I love to read.  One day I’m going to become a publisher,” I explained.

            “But... you draw... I haven’t seen you read.”