RemebeRED: Diving into Fall

Prompt: For you, what does autumn evoke?


Pat was a self-assured star receiver with eyes the color of a summer sky. I was a gawky teenager with poor social skills. We were just taking a walk together. His younger brother and a friend were chasing a few steps behind us. The darkness led brisk little bursts of wind to push us down the sidewalk; the air was already crisp with the cold front that was due later that weekend. Many of the houses had large piles of leaves in front, carefully raked and ready to be bagged.

One yard held the Mount Everest of leaves in front. The pile loomed, and it made me anxious. What was in that pile? I didn't want to walk near it, and I started to give it a wide berth. Pat stopped. When I glanced back at him, I could see the glint of his braces as he grinned at me. It was the grin of a person who would always try to go over the obstacle instead of around it. The grin of a person who would laugh at adversity, embracing it as an equal.

It was one of those grins that could steal a girl's heart when she wasn't looking.

Pat dove right into the middle of that pile of leaves like he was diving into a pool of water. I was amazed at his fearlessness. He surfaced on the other side of the pile, coming up for air in an explosion of leaves. Pat hit the leaves with one hand like they were water and he was splashing me. My fears disappeared into the night with my laughter. It would be a daydream crush, wispy and insubstantial, not meant to survive the passage of time. But just then, it didn't matter.