Trees and Boys and Other Mysteries

She teaches him how to feed the ducks. She breaks bread, she smiles, she speaks in hushed tones. He stands back, scared at first. What if they come after me? What if I'm not fast enough? The ducks honk and laugh and honk and laugh. They shield their eyes from the sun and the little boy says  

look.

She picks him up and carries him to the shoreline. His words are incomprehensible. His emotion all over his sleeves.

A teenage boy jumps from a structure just North of them. He does a back flip and then rolls up on to his feet, running his hands through his long hair. The little boy just laughs. A fish jumps two feet in the air and belly flops back in the water. The teenage boy leans against a rock with his journal and his thoughts. An old man walks along the trail with the help of walking sticks. The ducks glide along the water.

The leaves are changing, but it's happening too slow for anyone to see.

They'll be dead in six weeks.

And we'll act like we never even saw it coming.