nemoF
03-08-2004, 02:26 AM
As I stepped out through the wooden doors of the building, the cold November air greeted me in embrace. I shivered below three layers of clothing and drew the hood of my jacket closer around my head. It was a cold blue Monday evening as I walked back to my university room after a long day of lectures. My mind had not been in the room where I had been sitting for the past hour. I would be listening to the lecture about circuits and voltages and quite unconsciously, the image of her dragging her bags down the stairs would come to mind. Some one would have probably helped her carry the bags from her third floor apartment. There would not have been much luggage anyway. She was only going for six days.
Six days… To the sound of crunching feet on frosty grass, I looked up at where I was going. The sun was setting now, magnificent and yellow, glinting through the brown trees. He looked so cozy, as if nestling into a rustling bed of fallen autumn leaves. The sunlight shined a mellow golden brown through the leaves, the color of her hair, I thought. In my mind, I saw the way her long hair shone in the sun, a brown mass of warmth tumbling softly onto her shoulders. A sudden gust of wind swirled the dry leaves around my feet. Its cold breath stung my cheeks and reminded me of where I was.
I had been going up a gentle incline, away from the academic buildings on campus and towards my room. I now reached the top, and for a moment, my view of the setting sun improved, as the trees gave way to the open green space of a baseball field. It was a beautiful evening, blue and cloudless, bright but cold. Days, I thought, are like people. There is so much variety, and each has its mood. Some are warm and bright, some cool and quiet. By this point, I had reached the edge of the baseball field, and there was no one around on this cold, quiet evening. Around it ran a green, grid-like fence, and as I walked along, I watched the sun blink on and off through the grid. On a childish impulse, I reached out and ran my finger tips along the cold wire, but they quickly became numb in the persistent wind and I had to stuff them back into my pockets. Feeling slowly returned to my fingers, and I remembered her hands. I thought of the few brief occasions when I had held them, their warmth, their soft weight, their beauty. I remembered the joy I felt on each of those moments, a joy I only wish she knew.
I reached the gate to the fields. I entered and sat down against the fence, facing the sun and feeling its last feeble rays on my face. The wind had quietened now, and the air lay still on the field. An airplane arced its way silently across the blue expanse overhead, leaving a long white streak behind. My eyes followed the progress of the plane, watching as the well-defined streak immediately behind the plane gradually expanded and became puffy. Farther behind, where the sky dipped into the far away tree tops, the wind was gently wiping the streaks off the vast blue canvas. I wondered about the people seated in that plane, as it bore them towards the sun. Where were they going? To meet family, to meet loved ones? Towards warmth? I wish I could soar up into the blue sky, to wing my way where my heart wanted to go. But I could not. I had to stay and wait.
The sun had almost completely disappeared behind the trees in the distance. The sky was a beautiful palette of colors: yellow diffusing into orange on the horizon, orange changing into pink and lavender, and gently melting into the blues and purples high overhead. The white streak left behind by the jet glowed golden in the last rays of the sun before it lost its sheen to a pale blue, as night slowly spread across the heavens. My eyes searched for the airplane, but it had disappeared into the distance. I thought about a similar plane in which she would be sitting, excited and happy to be going home. She would probably be looking at the same sunset from high above, wondering at its beauty. She would look out at the expanse of earth below, but she would not see someone sitting at the edge of a green baseball field, someone looking up at the sky with hope.
The blues were silently dissolving into the inky blackness of night, and little pin-pricks of light were slowly becoming visible. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Her radiant face appeared before me, and I could not bear it anymore. I opened my eyes and stood up, feeling disoriented. The wind, which had been still, started whistling again. As I turned around and started walking back towards my room, the cold stung my eyes.
Six days… To the sound of crunching feet on frosty grass, I looked up at where I was going. The sun was setting now, magnificent and yellow, glinting through the brown trees. He looked so cozy, as if nestling into a rustling bed of fallen autumn leaves. The sunlight shined a mellow golden brown through the leaves, the color of her hair, I thought. In my mind, I saw the way her long hair shone in the sun, a brown mass of warmth tumbling softly onto her shoulders. A sudden gust of wind swirled the dry leaves around my feet. Its cold breath stung my cheeks and reminded me of where I was.
I had been going up a gentle incline, away from the academic buildings on campus and towards my room. I now reached the top, and for a moment, my view of the setting sun improved, as the trees gave way to the open green space of a baseball field. It was a beautiful evening, blue and cloudless, bright but cold. Days, I thought, are like people. There is so much variety, and each has its mood. Some are warm and bright, some cool and quiet. By this point, I had reached the edge of the baseball field, and there was no one around on this cold, quiet evening. Around it ran a green, grid-like fence, and as I walked along, I watched the sun blink on and off through the grid. On a childish impulse, I reached out and ran my finger tips along the cold wire, but they quickly became numb in the persistent wind and I had to stuff them back into my pockets. Feeling slowly returned to my fingers, and I remembered her hands. I thought of the few brief occasions when I had held them, their warmth, their soft weight, their beauty. I remembered the joy I felt on each of those moments, a joy I only wish she knew.
I reached the gate to the fields. I entered and sat down against the fence, facing the sun and feeling its last feeble rays on my face. The wind had quietened now, and the air lay still on the field. An airplane arced its way silently across the blue expanse overhead, leaving a long white streak behind. My eyes followed the progress of the plane, watching as the well-defined streak immediately behind the plane gradually expanded and became puffy. Farther behind, where the sky dipped into the far away tree tops, the wind was gently wiping the streaks off the vast blue canvas. I wondered about the people seated in that plane, as it bore them towards the sun. Where were they going? To meet family, to meet loved ones? Towards warmth? I wish I could soar up into the blue sky, to wing my way where my heart wanted to go. But I could not. I had to stay and wait.
The sun had almost completely disappeared behind the trees in the distance. The sky was a beautiful palette of colors: yellow diffusing into orange on the horizon, orange changing into pink and lavender, and gently melting into the blues and purples high overhead. The white streak left behind by the jet glowed golden in the last rays of the sun before it lost its sheen to a pale blue, as night slowly spread across the heavens. My eyes searched for the airplane, but it had disappeared into the distance. I thought about a similar plane in which she would be sitting, excited and happy to be going home. She would probably be looking at the same sunset from high above, wondering at its beauty. She would look out at the expanse of earth below, but she would not see someone sitting at the edge of a green baseball field, someone looking up at the sky with hope.
The blues were silently dissolving into the inky blackness of night, and little pin-pricks of light were slowly becoming visible. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Her radiant face appeared before me, and I could not bear it anymore. I opened my eyes and stood up, feeling disoriented. The wind, which had been still, started whistling again. As I turned around and started walking back towards my room, the cold stung my eyes.