watch the trees

“You know,” he says around the lit cigarette dangling from his mouth, “a world away is still the world beneath your feet.”

I look over at him and consider this. He stands against the bare concrete wall, a backdrop of rough, solid grey. I stand next to him, my back against the cool face of the wall. I can feel the tiny imperfections in it pressing through the fabric of my shirt. Small mountains in a world spanning forever, until it reaches the second floor.

I turn my head to the right and let my eyes sweep over the horizon. Steele grey clouds ring the world, softly billowing curtains of rain from their undersides. The wind picks up; a soft gale whips the folds of my shirt and pants against my skin.

He grunts as he sees me watching the skies and I turn back to face him. He takes a drag on his cigarette, plucks it from his mouth with his left hand, and turns his head the same way as he blows the smoke away from me.

“There’s something about the storm clouds, isn’t there?” He raises his hand, inhales another lungful of his own storm cloud. He points off into the distance, ash falling from the tip of his smoke. “You’d better make your mind up. The footsteps of giants don’t wait for just anyone.”

Maybe he was right. I stared off at nothing in particular, seeing trees sweep their limbs and leaves, deciduous jelly fish in an ocean of air. I stared out, but focused on nothing.

He takes one more drag of acrid cloud into him, savouring it. As he exhales he holds up the stub of the still lit cigarette before his eyes, moving it this way and that, examining the small suns of coals visible on its surface. He turns to face me now, and I turn my head to regard him.

He stands still for a moment, his mouth moves as if he were about to speak, then chuffs quietly as if he felt what he wanted to say wasn’t quite right. His eyes search the world around him and he finally draws in a breath.

“In the silence there is trepidation.” And he was gone.

I am still. Motionless. I let his words echo back and forth in the caverns and crevasses in my mind. I blink.

I am back behind the window.

watch the trees