Walking along together with the sun shining down from above, the path's ascent and descent constantly changing grade but always moving forward. Days, weeks, months and years we traveled on through darkest forest canopies and flowering open meadows, over cold city streets and hot pavement, along cool ocean sands and heated breezes all mediated to a constant pleasing warmth. Our hands constantly clutched together as we traversed the world we knew and came to call our own. We walked together and that made the journey unforgettable.
As the Earth's rotation accelerated and the clouds and rain began to spin around about our heads, the road grew more and more difficult to see through the darkening mist. I closed my tearing eyes hoping with my aching heart that the air would clear and our sun would shine as brilliantly as before. I felt your fingers slipping through mine and I felt the over-moistened air pouring through my nostrils and choking me from within. The tempest grew and I had to steady myself against the rush of the wind, with my hands now apart from yours I tried to shield my face against the fierce spikes of water. I drifted off blindly, your proximity to me uncertain though I knew you must be close by.
At long last the storm abated yet I feared to open my eyes. Perhaps the world we had known had been changed forever by the force of nature, the new order of things. My hands were shaking, my head dizzy and my heart felt like it might explode out of my chest but I knew I needed to open my eyes to surmise what had become of the path we once so contentedly walked. It was then that I saw a split, two roads diverging, both shrouded in the lingering clouds. I could not see you. Never before had I felt such a heaviness on my body, my brain. For here I was at a crossroads and shaken to my very deepest soul as I felt my feet carry me along one pathway and through the gradually lifting cloud I saw you heading down the other.
© 2012 Paul Caracciolo. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
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