Bloom, Shifting

1.

1.

I entered the city on wind.

It was still warm, but I wore an

oversized sweater. Ma had said it would be

very, very cold. It was supposed to be

cold.

No one told me there would be

so many people. They were everywhere,

hiding behind doors and around corners.

People were not polite like at

home, home was safe. I wanted to

go home.

The first few weeks of school I

wandered Toronto, dazed. The sky scrapers where

dizzying, spiraling above like glassy redwoods.

No one spoke to me really, I think I

looked too scared to be approached. I was a

ghost.

Then she appeared, walking out of a

haze. The fog wrapped around her

marble skin, tyrian purple wings dragging

behind. She was a faerie walking the

midnight streets.

Are you lost, she asked. Her voice was

the wind through leaves.

I'm coming from the concert, are you,

she asked.

No, I – I'm lost.

My words came out in short puffs,

Hanging in the nippy air.

Where do you live, her question

sinks in and I don't know what to say.

Do you know?

It's the residence, the glassy one.

By the school, I say, not remembering the street.

Her eyes are shallow pools, the kind I thought

faeries drank from after it rained.

I know which one, she gestures with long fingers. They

have silver wrapped around every one,

none left bare. The rings glisten in

lamplight. We are the only ones out.

I think –

I start, but she shakes her head. Hair like

my redwoods shifts, leaves on

a forest floor.

Let me take you home. Her smile

softens her angular face.

My name is Elliot.

Elliot.

The name sits on my tongue, melting as if it

were sugar. Elliot.

I hold that sweet name in my mouth all the way

home, mouthing it to the darkness.

A/N: This is the only authors note I ever want to put on this story. I only want to say that this is dear to my heart, and I work on it sporadically and with tenderness. I would greatly appreciate feedback and thoughts. 

Thank you, and please enjoy.

Rose