I think all the leaves had fallen down the night before
I think all the leaves had fallen down the night before. She waited on the pavement with her feet in it all, her bright red shoes plain and problematic amongst those dead things. The breeze opened her eyes and she was awake. He came and picked her up and they hugged and smiled and they were on the road.
There weren’t many people around, she noticed. But she didn’t think it was worth mentioning. At the crossing, a single leaf fluttered down onto the windscreen and waited for the lights. ‘Winter will be long’ he said, and they were off again. Privately, they both longed for all the energy in the change of seasons. He thought about how old he had become. She touched the window without really knowing why.
As they approached the woods the tops of the trees loomed into view – a field of cold, riled shapes that hid the sun. Pointing languidly from inside the car, one of them said ‘there’ and the other agreed though didn’t say anything. They stopped at a point on the hill which overlooked the world to the south with its vague buildings and forms. When he stepped outside, the cold embraced his chest and made him realise he was alive. The sun still prevailed.
They followed the dirt path, dropping into the buttress of trees which closed them off from the rest of the earth. She hummed a song to fill the silences and it was a good song. He could smell the autumn and her and everything that was good. At that moment they are allusions to great and beautiful people.
The light found them from the side, reminding them that the day was ending. Time was moving quickly. The next day he would go away for a while. He hummed too and together they moved amongst the trees.
Sometimes she let him walk ahead and she watched him curiously. It irked her when he drifted from the path or picked up a stick because she saw that he was independent from her. They were not one body, she knew. But they held hands. She said ‘how far’ but it wasn’t a question.
Then they stopped walking and pointed to a spot on the ground between two trees neither of them knew the name of. There they dug a small hole. They felt bad when they cut into the tree roots but at the same time found it quite exhilarating. Her shoes had dirt on them. The ground was soft and damp. They took it in turns. Nearby there was a tree which had toppled and its broken stump was sinewy and harsh against the soft leaves. I wonder if anyone saw it fall.
When they had dug for a while they sat back and looked at their work. They said some things. Each took a piece of paper and started to write something for the future. He knew he could only say the things he wanted to say in writing. It all came out quickly and messily and he tried to see what it was he was trying to articulate but he wasn’t sure. They were facing away from each other. In the distance she watched the low lights that came as ribbons around all the assembled trees. Then she had finished writing and he thought he had too.
They folded and put their notes in a small metal tin, and it went into the hole. Something for the future. He filled in the hole alone as she watched the bits of sky above them with her hands on her knees and her hair around her shoulders. Then there wasn’t a hole anymore and they both looked at the ground where it had been and it felt like it had all happened ages ago. After a while he said ‘time to go?’, then it was quiet again and in his mind he was going. They stayed there for a while. Then she asked ‘shall we go?’ and they walked back the way they came, but slower this time.
When they emerged from the line of the trees, they could see across everything. He pointed to the distance and they both saw that the world was ending. The horizon was smouldering passionately and it looked like the colour of her dress that day. All the beautiful colours reflected in their eyes. There were thousands of black birds moving chaotically against all the light as if the sky was shouting so hard it was spitting them out.
And one of them said ‘oh well’ and the other said ‘oh well’ too and they held hands and walked away. She realised she had no choice but to love him. For once, it seemed that time was moving along more or less on time.