The Beginning of the End

January 17, 2021

The next day he will discover that she is a liar. She wonders why he hasn’t already noticed the way she avoids eye contact. Even now, when he is taking her picture, her blue eyes look down at the place where her lace shirt meets her jeans, as if being coy. He should know better. She is wondering if she should have worn a bra.
When the air rushes across her body and pushes her hair forward, she smiles like a child. She takes a deep breath and smells autumn; nature turning and changing and dying.
She takes off her shoes as they start down the trail. She wants to feel the earth on her skin, to wonder what creatures walked here before her, to feel the electrical current that struck here centuries ago.
When she sits on this swing they happened upon by the river, she feels like she is entering a time portal. Like she can catapult off and enter a new dimension. Maybe she will try.