I clutch my coffee closer, feeling the heat even through my thick coat. I watch as the dried leaves scatter further from the places they fell as wind moves through the leaves causing more to follow. The trees have been range and red for what seems like ages. August came and went quickly, September dragged on slowly, and it seemed like October would never end. November is here now, the air is crisp and the leaves are crunchy.
I've always loved fall, the way everything seemed to pause even though the world was spinning as fast as ever. The people always seem to be happy with the holidays approaching, all clumped together at the end of the year. Maybe that's why there are so many to distract us from the end; so that we can celebrate the New Year without having to mourn the end of the old.
We pause, but somehow we still keep moving. It's a seamless transition; Fall bleeds into Winter and no one even notices until the snow begins to fall, blanketing the Earth in a lumpy white sheet.
A strong gust of wind blows by tousling my hair. I take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes, relaxing and sitting back against the hard wood of the park bench.
My thoughts consume me as I sit and drift away, disappearing into the abyss of my consciousness. Thoughts of who sat exactly where I'm sitting top the list. Wondering who else has sat here looking at the brilliant colors of autumn.
A loud piercing scream ran through the park interrupting my thoughts. I sat up quickly and glanced around. There was a young woman clinging diligently to a parse which was being tugged away by a shady looking man about twice her size. He yanked hard and tore it from her grasp. I bit my lip hard and shot my hand out, my coffee clattering to the ground beneath me. I shifted and pulled something invisible out in front of him. He tripped over air and fell to the ground face first into the dirt.
Another older man had seen what had happened and ran over to the thief. The woman snatched her purse and held it close to her chest. I smiled to myself, resting my hands on my thighs and hoping that nobody else had noticed my sudden movement. 'Just blend in' I thought to myself as I let the adrenalin that had flowed into my veins to flow back out.
"I saw that Emma" said a deep male voice, I felt the bench flex as he sat down next to me. I turned and glared at him. Charlie had a way of showing up at the oddest times (for other people).
"Yeah I know, that poor lady. I'm glad that guy was a clutz. Lucky for them, right?" I leaned forward and picked up my coffee cup, tossing it into the trash can next to me.
"Why do you pretend like I don't know? Em, you're allowed to be honest with me" he complained. I sighed and glanced back at the trees. "How come you don't trust me? Did I do something?" he asked looking at me with wide eyes. It wasn't fair, his eyes were bright green, like emerald green and they stood out contrasting with his mass of dark hair. He had fair skin and freckles dotted lightly across his cheeks.
"Charlie, calm down please. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I don't know how to handle people knowing. I'm like an alien, okay? I'm weird and afraid of being dissected."
"It's not because I did anything though, right? I'm not being weird about it?" he insisted placing his hand on my shoulder.
"No, it's not, I trust you. I swear. Hey look at this" I say glancing around to make sure no one is looking. I moved my hand delicately and slid it through the air. In front of us the leaves on the ground moved up into the air as if the wind was pushing them. I swirled my finger in the air and the leaves followed the pattern before settling back don on the ground.
