Left Behind

4

Today is a good day. I heard that when you catch a falling leaf, you get a good day. There are many opportunities for it now. The leaves are burning bright colors. All around us are gold, amber, and ruby swirling with the wind.

"I caught one," she shrieked. She triumphantly holds up a scarlet red leaf.

He runs up to her from behind and wraps his arms around her.

"And now I caught you," he laughs with her in his arms.

"Wow, I think you just caught a super cheesy line," she turns her head to get a better view of his face.

He grins at her but shrugs. "I can't help if what I say makes you swoon for me." He looks into her eyes with a straight face on.

In return, she looks at him with an equally serious face. But she can see the amusement shining through his crystal sapphire eyes.

Both break into laughter from trying to be serious for too long.

"No really, look how pretty it is," she lifts it up to his face for he can see better.

"Yeah, I guess it's nice," he mumbles back.

"Hey," she playfully slaps his arm with her empty hand. "This is really special. I'm lucky that I was able to even catch one. It's harder than it looks."

He playfully rolls his eyes, "Well at least now you have one good day at your beck and call."

"It's not at my beck and call you goof," she teases him.

"The what's the point of having it," he asks her back.

Hesitantly she tries to explain, "Well.... For me it gives me hope that a good day will come. This way, I can look forward to everyday with the possibility that this could be the one that will be good. Not just giving me a good day, but the chance at believing that it will eventually happen even if there are so many bad ones, I will finally have a good one because I caught this leaf." Her voice softly trails off into a whisper at the end.

She blushes after she finishes while facing back to look down at the browning grass.

It's silent, but the wind whispering and the crackle of more leaves.

She breaks the silence since he is mute, "Umm...yeah. It's kind of childish you could say, but I just like the idea." Her words are mumbled from embarrassment.

He can clearly hear she's upset, which brings a frown to his lips. He turns her body around to be in front of him.

Taking a deep breath, he finally speaks. "I don't think that that was childish. I thought it was actually optimistic and sorta deep," he lifts her chin for he can see the expression on her face.

He continues on, "If I could, I would give you enough falling leaves to last a lifetime."

Her gaze slowly meets his and takes in his heartwarming smile. She cocks her head to the side like a lost puppy. Studying his sincere smile, it is enough to brighten her mood. The site of it puts on a goofy grin of her own on her face, relieved by his words.

Lifting her arms around his neck and standing on her tiptoes, she brings him into a hug.

His arms snake around her waist to hold her up against him.

In his neck, she mumbles, "Thanks. That was really sweet." She sighs, letting her warm breath brush against his exposed skin.

Pulling away she gives him a small genuine smile.

Feeling better from her smile he replies, "No problem. Maybe now we should try to catch as many good days as we can while they're still in our reach." He gives her a lopsided grin and a wink.

Nodding eagerly, but still with her smile she agrees, "As long as you can catch me first." She then turns around and sprints out of his arms with him chuckling and chasing behind her.

With that, I watch the pair as the they run around me laughing while the burning leaves rain down on them alerting autumn.