Keep It For Me

The first time he saw her, she was sitting on a dead tree that was half submerged in the lake.

“I think it’s sad, don’t you?” she had asked. “When I saw it sitting alone out here, I thought I should sit with it. Nothing should just be forgotten.”

He said nothing. She just shook her head and turned her gaze back out across the water. He watched the ripples spreading outwards from where her feet touched the surface.

He heard his heart beat.

~*~

The second time he saw her, she was swinging her legs on top of an old stone wall and she gave him a photograph she’d taken of a bicycle.

“I found it by the roadside. I think whoever owned it must have loved that bicycle, don’t you?” He said nothing. He handed the picture back to her.

She took it and looked at him with sad eyes that he didn’t really understand.

“I hope they loved it. I think it’s sad to be thrown away without at least being loved first.”

He watched as she tucked the photograph into her pocket and then walked away from him along the top of the stone wall.

He felt himself take a breath.

~*~

The third time he saw her, she was standing in the darkness and staring at the sky.

“I used to be so scared of the dark. It felt like being alone, being small and alone with no one standing beside you.”

He said nothing. She closed her eyes and spread her arms.

“I don’t think I’m so afraid of being alone anymore. I think if you’re alone for long enough, you get used to it. You learn to stand beside yourself.”

He thought he heard her start to cry.

“I just hope I don’t end up alone like that tree in the lake. I hope no one throws me away like the bicycle.”

He watched her run away into the darkness until his eyes strained with trying to see her.

He felt himself start to move.

~*~

The fourth time he saw her, she was sitting on a rock with a paper aeroplane in her hands.

“I thought that maybe I could write my feelings down and let them go, and maybe that would make things easier. But they won’t go in the right direction. They just end up crumpled on the ground.”

He said nothing. He took the aeroplane from her and smoothed it out so that he could read what was written on it. Then he folded it up and put it in his pocket and watched her smile.

“I’m glad that they reached someone. I’m glad that someone will look after them for a little while.”

He watched as she stood up and turned to go.

He felt himself grab her hand.