Apricity

Apricity

------------------------------------------------

I've been wandering by my lonesome for sometime now. This place is foreign to me. The air here makes me uneasy. Even so, I keep walking; I keep breathing. The only thing that gives me even a   glimpse of home is the sky. Wherever we go, we are all connected by it. I am under the same sky I was back home, and so are those I loved. It's a shame that I can't just fly back to the places I knew. I am stuck here, alone. 

I don't know where I am anymore. It wouldn't matter anyway. It's dark, and I don't know where I'm headed.


Ah, I've come to a riverbank. I might as well see where it leads. It's quite beautiful how the moon’s light reflects off of the water. As it ripples, it casts a dim light on the reeds beside me. It's comforting- the light. It gives me a feeling of nonexistent warmth in the night's chill. 

I should probably get some sleep. My feet ache and my thoughts are plaguing me. I'll just lie down against this tree for the night. The grass atop the mildly damp soil is quite soft and comfortable. As I lie on my back, I look up at the night sky. I gaze at the stars and the cloud that slowly drifts past the moon. As I begin to fall into my slumber, I take one last glance around me. There is something that stands out amidst the dimly lit reeds. 

There is a girl, taller than I, but around my age. There is a solemn, dismal look about her; a deep sadness that has penetrated her very being. Something about her is transfixing to me. I decided to call out to her.

‘Hey, are you alright?’, I asked.

She responded, ‘I'm not so sure. I'm a little… lost. Do you mind if I come over?’

‘I don't.’

So she came over to me. She put her back against the trunk of the tree behind me and slid down so that her knees were bent, and she wrapped her arms around them. I got a better look at her face. She had dark eye bags, mildly cracked lips, and a soft frown. Despite these things, there was one thing that stood out. Her eyes shone brightly in the moonlight- far brighter than the water as it reflected the moon’s shine.

‘Why are you out here?’, She asked.

‘I don't know.’

‘Nor do I.’

Her voice was soft and delicate, as if it were something you could drop glass on without it resulting in so much as a crack. It seemed that with every word she uttered, she picked up those glass objects and put them back so lightly that not even a clink was heard on the surface it was placed on. She captivated me.

‘So we are both lost then?’

She nodded once, and then looked up at the sky through the bare branches of the tree.

‘Are you tired?’

She looked back down at me and said, ‘Yes.’

As we laid down side by side, there was a silence that occurred, only being broken by the slow running of the river, and the distant chirp of grasshoppers. A chilly breeze swept past, and the girl began to shiver.

‘Are you cold?’

‘Yes.’

‘Here, take my jacket’

‘Thank you.’

As the same silence from before ensued and I began to drift into sleep. The silence was broken again by her. Even though it broke me out of my rest, I could not help but enjoy it. Her voice was so soothing. The dreary yet warm tone of it was like apricity in this night’s chill.

‘Say, at this moment, what is one thing you want more than anything in the world?’

‘I'm not too sure.’ I responded. ‘Why? What about you?’

‘I'm not too sure either. Try to give me an answer.’

‘Well..’

As I felt that cold breeze sweep over me, and the loneliness that I had been trapped in slowly close in on me, I knew my answer.

‘In this moment, a hug.’

She looked at me and finally broke that soft frown with a smile. I thought she was going to laugh at me. I could have said anything else, but I decided to be honest.

‘You know, I think I wish for the same.’

So she came closer and embraced me. Her warmth washed over me. I felt her breath on my shoulder and the tightness of her arms around me. Everything seemed to disappear around us. All that was left in that moment were her and I. I wrapped my arms around her tightly. We laid there underneath that tree for what felt like a lifetime. There was an unspoken wish between us that we would never let go. We turned so that our faces met one another, and fell asleep. We did not separate until the morning when we woke. 

I had this burning desire not to leave this girl- who’s name I did not yet know- 's side. 

So I asked her, ‘Hey, will you wander with me?’

She looked at me with those beautiful eyes and replied, ‘I'll never take one step away from our path.’

We bade goodbye to the tree we spent the night under, and went on; the tempo matching in our strides. I would never know that tree again, but the image of its silhouette glowing in the dim moonlight with this girl beside me would forever be etched into my mind.


About that time, I woke up. I suppose I had fallen asleep under that tree after all and had  simply begun to dream. I got up, shook my head, and the visions that passed through my mind the night before began to disappear. I went on walking. My feet still ached. The air went back to making me uneasy.

I glanced beside me at the river I was following. There was no air under there to make me uneasy. ‘How nice it would be to slip into that unknown.’, I thought.

So I walked into the river and sucked the freezing water into my lungs. I'm beginning to feel more than those visions of the night before begin to fade. Finally.. its all.. en….


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Particularly Beautiful Stretch Of Sky

That Which Causes The Visions

The Woman Sitting Next To Me