A Place For the Unfinished

Autumn Stories

A young, teenage girl breathed in the cool afternoon autumn air. She was leaning against the side of her Japanese-style home, gazing absently into the sky through her glasses. The day was nearing sunset, and the breeze was blowing the colorful leaves around. It wasn't the nearest to winter, as many leaves still remained on the trees, but the unspoken promise of snow was clear through the frost that had been blown across windows every morning; frost that now curled on the edges of the garden. The colors of fall splashed across a small pond, creating gentle ripples. The girl was toying with a pendant linked to a chain around her neck, her eyes distant and reminiscent of past memories. Her short brown hair blew about in melody to the wind and the gentle music that was playing inside the home.

The figures of two young children had appeared, reflected in the eyes of the girl, but not to be seen in the physical reality. Both brown-haired and black-eyed, they were clearly siblings, if not twins. They had chased each other, laughing and shouting.

A wind chime had twinkled, hanging from the ceiling of the small porch the girl stood on, its shape barely discernible in front of the setting sun. The color of the clouds had drifted across the surface of the small pond. A splatter of pink, brushstrokes of orange and red and yellow, with the ever-present blue sky, all having mixed together with the scents of autumn.

The scene in the girl's eyes had shifted. Now, it was the same setting, however the siblings had grown. They were sprawled across a porch, the female was drawing and the male laughing at something he had read. A pout came over the previous's face, the latter chuckling even harder. The sound of the wind chime grew slightly louder, though not by much. Just there, constantly present. Not obvious at all, blurring into the background along with the colors and music.

A family of birds had flown by. The presence of a tear hung onto the eyelashes of the teenager leaning against the wooden wall, silently mirroring love, loss, pain and sorrow. All that one experience in life. The wind chime's sound now matched the music playing within. The eyes of the girl had become a storm, millions of memories flying through them, until finally, they rested on a stone planted into a grassy field at sunset, flowers at its feet and the words- Syphr Zenith Autumnus -A Dear Friend, Wonderful Son, and Loving Brother. May He Rest In Peace- written across the stone. Emotions were displayed through tears that never fell, and would never fall again. They were the image of the cycle of life, experience, love, and sorrow.

But I wouldn't have known what that meant, now would I? After all, I was merely an old house cat that had been quietly lying on the corner of a porch, silently blending into the background of colors, wind, and music.

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This was actually written quite a while ago so... my writing has probably improved since then, hopefully-