Autumn in Quebec had its own language.
It whispered in the amber of hush of late afternoons, in the crackle of dry leaves underfoot, in stillness between wind gusts that carried the scent of firewood and distant laughter.
Elirys had always thought there was something sacred about this season ~ Something beautiful to never forget, even though she liked the loneliness of winter more cause it made her feel like the weather understood her.
And today it felt like the trees were dreaming in color.
She hadn't planned to wander this far. Her journal lay unfinished in her bag, and she had no particular destination in mind. Just a desire to walk until her thoughts softened. The city had began to retreat into its own hush and in its place bloomed a small park, almost hidden from the world.
The maples here were ancient, sprawling like the storybook illustrations. Their leaves burned gold and crimson and rust , falling slow, like time itself has learned to exhale. It was under this canopy of fire that Elirys paused, eyes tilted towards the sky, letting the warm light paint her face through the leaves.
And then she saw him.....
Across the path, just beyond, a cluster of trees, he stood with his hands in his coat pockets . Still composed, his eyes tilted to the branches . As if he, too, had wandered into this moment by accident or fate.
The stranger from the bus stop.
Not imagined. Not gone.
This time it's real.
And looking at her like he'd never really stopped.
She didn't move for a heartbeat neither did he. The space between them stretched ~ filled with things unsaid, things remembered, the soft weight of a note once folded with a white flower stilled pressed inside a journal.
And then , slowly she stepped towards him.
"I didn't think we'd meet again", She said, her voice catching on the edge of her breath.
He turned to her, his expression unreadable but his eyes were gentle. "Neither did I", He said, "But i kept hoping".
A breeze swept between them, a single maple leaf loosened from its branch and spun downward, as if the tress asked of them, circling once ~ twice ~
They both tried to hold it at the same time, and when their finger closed at the stem of the leaf, neither pulled away. Like they were too afraid to break something that neither fully understood yet. They looked at the leaf together still holding it. A soft crimson- gold flame between them.
"Do you know", He said, barely above a whisper, " that in some places.... holding a maple leaf together means eternal love?"
She blinked, the weight of his words folding into the silence. "Is that true?"
He smiled ~ small, knowing "Maybe. Maybe it's just a story".
Elirys held his gaze "Sometime stories are the truest thing we have."
The wind moved again, scattering leaves around them like confetti from the sky. And for a moment, they stood still in the center of it all ~ his fingers wrapped lightly with hers, their shared leaf trembling like a heart trying not to fall apart.
It didn't feel like falling.
It felt like landing....