The sky had cleared. The air had dried. The quiet sound of water flowing off the roads and into the drains ceased and the world began to return to its normal state. I marveled at the colors of the leaves as I walked the sidewalk alone in their shade. No cars passed on the road; the world was silent save the call of birds nestled away in the tapestry of the trees.
It was bittersweet to see winter gone. For one thing I didn't enjoy the cold, and it was nice to wear less layers and let the slowly warming air blow against my skin again, but January and February were now a part of my winter. My memories of them frozen in time by the season's icy chill. I still wanted them back, but I found that I was less consumed by their absence now that a little more time had passed.
I had received two more letter from them since New Years. Nothing important, just them, being the wonderful friends that they are, checking in. I always sent a letter back.
I didn't see the girl running up the sidewalk, and she hadn't seen me either. Neither of us were aware of the other's existence until we ran into each other on the sidewalk. I had been so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't immediately recognized her as April. I took me a moment longer to recognize she was crying.
She tried to hide it. Her blonde hair was down and blowing in the wind, hiding her face. She looked towards the ground as she ran trying to keep others from noticing her. I noticed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you all right?" I asked as she tried regained her balance after running into me.
She looked up at me through her tangled, unkempt blonde hair, her makeup splotchy from tears.
"Yea, i'm fine." She said, wiping her face on her sleeve as if I wouldn't notice.
"Are you sure?" Looking at April I knew the answer was no, but I simply wanted to extend the invitation to talk. I knew her face, and I could tell she knew mine, but we didn't know each other, but me and November hadn't known each other. He had extended the invitation to talk to me, a complete stranger, and I had been so grateful to him for that. Now, I had the opportunity to do the same for someone else. I had decided I would embrace that opportunity.
For a while April simply stood there and looked at me. She looked like she didn't know what to do. How to react. I didn't think I knew what to do either.
Then all of a sudden the tears on her face resurfaced, and April did something I didn't expect. She closed the distance between us and rested her head against my chest. She wrapped her arms around me. I wrapped my arms around her, surprised and hesitant at first.
There was a dark wood bench beside us, and I sat down with her, maintaining our embrace. We sat like that for a while. April was quiet, but I could feel her body gently shaking with emotion. I let my gaze wander to the sky. The sun was beginning to reach the horizon line. Sunset would set in soon. The sky would soon turn to a canvas of orange and yellow and blue before the light left the sky entirely, but for now the sky remained a blanket of white clouds backed by a beautiful blue atmosphere.
It felt strange to me, sitting on the dark wood bench, comforting April. It felt strange not only because we hardly knew each other, but because with January and February, I was usually the one being comforted. I tried my best to copy their body language. Behave how they would, because they had been so good at that sort of thing.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, April spoke. " Do you ever feel like there is this thing somewhere out there that if you had it, it would solve all your problems, but then you think that once you have it, that thing won't solve anything because that's not how the world works. But still, here you are without that thing feeling like there's something missing and your just stuck with that."
