Day 41
girl
As she walked through the woods, a breeze followed, picking up strands of her hair and moving them one way then another. The pines caught some of them with their long dull needles, hooked and snagged her hair for the birds. An owl slept in a tree to the left, its feathers shifting as she passed. A mouse moved quick to the roots of a bush, instinctively and barely avoiding her boot. She was oblivious to all of this, her mind having rushed on ahead to keep up with what her eyes were after, in the distance, where he walked toward the edge of the trees. She could not, in her present state, distracted as she was, be expected to notice much else besides his shoulders, his wide gait, his large hands brushing back branches here and there before diving back into his jacket pockets. She could not be blamed for missing the way the wood adjusted its branches, parting just a bit for her and then closing back up behind her like curtains. This forest knew her, had been the ground on which she took her first steps, tiny hands pressing against fallen mossy trunks. It recognized her always, and moved with and around her in a sweet familial way. She was just twenty now, and following this man into the trees, she no longer felt wonder at the way the forest stirred at her approach. Nothing distracted her, nothing could break the tension of her anxious anticipation, her hope that this man would inexplicably turn to wait for her.
He reached the water a good five minutes before she broke through the low branches, and as she picked her way out into the stream, hopping from one stone to the next, he was already fishing. She knew well enough to stay quiet, to fall back, settle into a corner and not interrupt him. Four hours later she was still there, sitting with her back to a mossy tree, feet bare and playing with the current just beyond shore. He put his hand out to help her to her feet and they wordlessly returned to the truck, where he opened the door for her as the sun dropped behind the hills.
