I love the sound of the wind blowing the leaves around. The smell of the rain that will begin to fall any minute makes me feel so relaxed. The sky is cloudy and the tall trees sway from side to side as if dancing to the music made by nature.
I am laying on a large rock in the middle of the woods with my eyes closed. This is my place to get away from everything and think. The sky is cloudy and I can hear thunder in the distance. The rain is getting closer. I’m glad, I love the rain. I open my eyes and stare at the falling leaves and the darkening sky.
As I lay there, I hear the sound of crunching leaves. Someone must be nearby. I sit up and look around. In the corner of my eye, I see a slight movement and a flash or white. I get up to try to see who it is coming to disrupt my moment of peace. It is a boy, and he is walking as if he is determined to get to a destination. I follow him. I try to catch up, but he is walking fast. He stops and bends down to tie his shoe. As he stands back up I see his face.
It is him.
He who I thought I would never see again.
I had stopped abruptly when I saw his face and now that he had started walking again I was further behind him. I decided I would follow him and try to at least say a few words to him.
I started to walk faster and when I was closer I called after him.
“Bruce!” I yelled out.
At that time, the sound of thunder drowned out my voice. And all at once it started to drizzle. I began to jog and kept calling his name, but it seemed he could not hear me. As I got close enough to him that if I reached out I could touch him with my hand and just then, he walked into a clearing. I stopped at the edge of the clearing waiting for him to acknowledge that I was. He kept walking in to the middle of the clearing, I didn’t know if he was ignoring me or he just hadn’t seen me.
I noticed there was a tombstone in the clearing ad suddenly I felt uncomfortable. I felt like I was interrupting a moment that he might want to be alone. I started to walk away, now hoping he hadn’t noticed me, when he started to cry. It started out as a soft whimper, but it got louder until he was crying uncontrollably.
It hurt me to see him suffer like that so I stepped closer to him. I wanted to comfort him, to do something to make him stop crying.
I was only a step behind when I reached my hand out to touch his shoulder. I took a step closer and I tripped over something on the ground. I fell forward and barely missed falling on him. Even so, he still seemed not to notice my presence at all. I had landed right on top of the tomb. It had to be my luck for something so stupid to happen to me. I started to stand as he fell to his knees, still sobbing.
I was filled with compassion for him. I leaned over to try to put my arm around him and somehow missed his shoulder.
“Bruce, are you okay?” I asked as I walked around him to face him.
He didn’t even blink. He didn’t move at all. It was like he was looking through me at the tombstone. I reached out to wipe a tear off his face. My hand went through his cheek. I tried to touch him again, and once more my hand passed through him like he was made of air.
He started saying my name very softly. I hardly heard it at first. At that moment I assumed he finally saw me and I tried to hug him. At the same time he bent down to wipe leaves off the grave…I felt nothing as our bodies passed through each other.
At that moment I realized something terrible. I looked down at the tombstone and confirmed my suspicion.
I was standing over my own grave.
As I stood there in awe, he whispered “ I’m sorry…I know I’m too late, but I love you…”