“YOU”

It was such a gloomy, sad day. And maybe it wasn’t sad, maybe it was just autumn painting over it or maybe it just wanted it to look that way. Whatever it was, I thought it was sad. For the last few years I’ve basically had beautiful days, or at least good ones. Occasionally something worse would come along, but not explicitly sad.
Something somber crept into my soul that day. My legs carried me as they wanted, immersed in myself I didn’t even notice where I was going. Until I stood there. Right there. In front of it, in front of our bench. At first I was surprised it was still there, then the memory came to me. Mine. Ours. None of us sit on that bench anymore, no one has sat on it in years. Neither I nor You.
Many years ago, when I was still alive and thought I could change the world, I went that way too. I never thought I’d ever want to do it again. I had my memories tied to this place. Secret, only mine, and buried deep inside me. I never told anyone about them, nor did I intend to, nor did I ever opened them within myself. I had them hidden deep inside my heart from the world and from myself. And it was so well.
We sat together on a bench, lonely and disappointed with life. Both. And then, all of a sudden, the wind started playing with the leaves in front of us. A gentle and fresh breeze, sometimes just caressing our cheeks. You and me, and just enough to let us know about itself. It was the tease of fallen autumn leaves. And then it circled around your head and ruffled your golden hair. It’s a rascal, I guess he wanted to play. How I envied him. You smiled guiltily. We were both a little shy and afraid to say even just only one single word out loud. Perhaps we were afraid that the sound would disturb the beautiful and tender thing we both felt so strongly.
I watched in silent amazement as that naughty breeze played with your hair and then, in one unguarded moment, our sights met. I don’t know how long that moment could have lasted, maybe just a second or an eternity. It filled my soul with incredible peace. And then, at the same moment, we both looked down at the ground. Staring straight ahead, secretly wishing the other would take that step. Vainly, I was overcome with shyness, and so were you. We sat there, staring at each other. An eternity.
Ahead of us on the path, there was a leaf. It had come down from somewhere in the clouds, or from a tree, or the wind had blown it here from somewhere else. It wasn’t extraordinary, but it caught our attention. I wanted to give it to you. I stared at it for minutes, thinking. Before I knew it, someone else had taken it.
We looked at each other and back at the leaf. Both. Suddenly we started laughing until we could hardly breathe and tears of laughter were flowing. We sat there laughing like two fools. For minutes.

How did we figure out it was funny?

(24.1.2025)