October

A chilly breeze gently blows the white wisps of a woman's hair into her face. The red and orange leaves crunch beneath her walking stick as she moves through the lush forest. As she inhales October's natural beauty, she sees a girl in front of her; dipping under branches and swerving between the trees that never seem to end. The young girl smiles with dirt smeared across her cheek... then disappears. 

As the sun goes down behind the autumn woods, the old woman makes her way slowly to the cabin that her father and grandfather built so long ago. It's wood, now covered with moss, remains as sturdy as it was some seventy years earlier. The smell of rain fills the air. She carefully makes her way up the front steps to the door before the first drops begin to pitter patter onto the roof.

Once inside, she hangs up her shiny red raincoat, slips off her black mucky boots, and heads down the hall to the bathroom. The woman's fingers graze the smooth frames of the pictures hung along the walls: a close-knit family climbing a tower of rocks, two little girls jumping into a pile of damp leaves, a boy laughing, peering out from behind a tree. Bittersweetly, she opens the bathroom door and turns on the sink faucet. As the soapy water warms her dainty hands, she glances up into the mirror. A streak of dirt is smeared across the cheek of the smiling face staring back at her.