The Wall Crossers

The Desolate Path

Olivia's perspective

After our Picknick, we clean up our area and stuff everything back into our packs, including the bottles. It is very warm now and will not need our sweaters until late in the day, if at all.

Anja puts the little blue stone in her purse. We say no more about it for now.

I go to a toilette that I see close by.

When I return, Anja says she knows a special trail, a path through the forest that is pretty, though desolate and little known. We put our packs up on shoulders and strike out.

After a five-minute walk, she turns left through some undergrowth, saying, "Here it is!"

We press through a bit of thick scrubby bushes at first so that I say, "Are you sure this is a path, Anja?"

She replies, "Yes," just as I look up and a branch that she had bent passing through flips back into my face. "Ow!" I say. "Sorry," she says, continuing to move forward.

Anja's perspective

At first I am thinking I turned into the wrong part of the forest, but after a few more steps it opens up and we are in a more sparce undergrowth with oak and beech and some spruce trees, and the path is much more defined. "Here we are," I say. I turn and smile at Livie. She smiles too.

We stop a moment to look around. "Pretty," Livie says.

"I love this place," I say, breathing deeply. Livie breathes deeply too and we both look happy with the fresh air and the sun dappling the ground from all the limbs and leaves above us.

Olivia's perspective

As we look around at the beauty, I say in a way that is more statement than question, "Anja, you have never walked in a forest with Horst, have you?"

She huffs air from her nose to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the question, and asks, "How could we? He is always being in the East!"

Now we face each other, the light breeze lifting Anja's hair into her eyes. She takes off her sunglasses and I remove mine too. We look into each other's eyes.

I say, "I am here with you now."

"But you will leave me." Now her eyes look sad.

I say nothing. I look around and then say, "Let's go."

Anja's perspective

We walk on down the path and it is more well-defined now. We have joined the trail now that I thought we were on originally! "Look, Livie, here is the path I was searching for!"

"Uh huh," she answers.

We still do not see anyone else. We walk for a while, and I begin talking about Horst, and Livie is quiet. We pass some large oaks very close to the path and I reach out and touch them. I look back at Livie, who is ten steps behind me. "Feel this," I say. She comes up and touches the large old tree. We both look up and see the same sky the tree has seen all her life. We look at each other and smile.

I walk on and continue talking about Horst. After less than a minute more of walking, I turn my head—I do not see Livie behind me at all now!

Olivia's perspective

As Anja has walked on down the path, I grin to myself and quickly duck to my left and position myself out of view behind one of the large Oak trees. I flatten myself to the tree and stand quietly, breathing softly, waiting, looking back up the path we just walked.

I finally get a moment's break from listening to stories about Horst Horst Horst!!

But without warning a lonely feeling ushers in, a moment charged with deep emotion, a gentle breeze begins to dance and twist through the forest, lifting fallen leaves and a sprinkle of dust, growing, swirling, causing the branches to delicately sway, their leaves quivering in response. The murmur of the wind! A whispery susurratie. It speaks of things I can never know, but softly. I shut my eyes, treasuring the sound until it gradually fades away. And now, but a few heartbeats later, a tranquil isolation returns, wrapping the woods in silence once again.