Autumn

Unwanted Prop

I was walking through the park down the street on what could be described as the perfect fall day. The leaves hung brillant hues of silver green and gold, with a smattering of red for good measure.

I meandered on this
picture perfect fall
blustery fall day.

I am transformed

by the sound of dry leaves
blowing in the wind.

The fine line
Am I witnessing this
splendid scene, or

a memory of that sound
and the memories

somehow tied to it.

I don’t know. They are
both spectacular.

Freddy, my Jack Russel terrier tags along with mono focused enthusiasm seeming oblivious to the crackling of the leaves. They do smell nice and that is a memory for another day. We cross into the park with intention of taking the faded trail around the park. It isn’t much of a trail rather it is where the grass has been eliminated by constant foot traffic. Predictably, Freddy did her business soon after we hit the trail. It is the duty of the dog owner to pick up after their hounds. It was an uglier than usual affair that he scooped and neatly tied with a malformed bow. He then walked Freddy with the leash in his left hand and the squishy dog bag in the right.

Soon after Freddy started to a get noticeably agitated as she thought herself the queen of this trail and all other trails in the future. She went into the bitch mode and started to descend into a frenzy at the sight of a fuzzy white dog coming from the other direction. The fuzzy white dog froze as did Freddy. The fuzzy white dog looked rather terrified. Freddy ignored my command to heal.

Out of either curiosity or self-defense, I followed the arc of the leash of the fuzzy white dog. There on the end of the leash stood a girl with the most simplistic beauty in the world. There was something about her that I had never seen before. My senses were in overdrive, and I had a sudden lack of control of my immediate world.

Maybe it was my endorphin driven mood or the perfect angle of the autumnal sun, there I stood and stared at one of most beautiful women I have ever seen. I have a virtual database of those in my brain. I think that way and I vividly remember the trance I was within. I don’t know exactly how the order of operations work in an overloaded sensory situation such as this. I stood there weak kneed and petrified. My insecurities bombarded me unexpectedly, as I suddenly smelled the aromas escaping from the bag held in my extended hand. I smelled of the dog bag twirling on my wrist. There was no getting around it.

I had seen this girl in the park before and was intrigued from afar. What grabbed my attention most was the fuzzy white dog. It seemed a gentle breed with a nice demeanor. There just happened to be a pretty girl attached to it.

“Hi, my name is Coleen”, she said as she extended her delicate left hand. I went to extend my left hand, then remembered I was holding the not so little green bag. I was obviously flustered, panicked for a second and gave her a quick glancing hug with the bag still in my hand. In what could have been a nice tender random encounter, was now turning into an under the radar train wreck. I was too tongue tied to even tell her my name. I gathered Freddy and we went on our way. I dropped that little green bag in the trash can as large rain drops started to fall from the sky.

This is an encounter I hoped to happen. I even practiced my part in my head, never expecting the encounter to ever occur. And when it did, I had high level stage freight and made a spectacle of myself.

I was thinking about this as I took a side trail through a field near my house. Many years later we play scenes such as this, over and over again and think what could have been. We think about, if I had the experience I have now with a situation that took place many years ago. Life simply doesn’t work that way. The wind picked up and a few dry leaves danced in the wind.

My mind wondered off again.