II

The silence was loud in the stillness ,even the crickets had ceased to sing, the night's creatures disturbed by the presence of an unseen figure... Well hidden by the trailing branches of an ancient willow. Behind it's drooping branches, she had an excellent view of her surroundings, yet was able to remain hidden from passing sight unless one knew exactly where to look. As the night's creatures began again their serenade, having come to the conclusion that this black clad stranger in their midst posed no threat, her thoughts turned toward the recent past. The conversation of the afternoon relaying endlessly in her mind... She heard again, as always, the endless low pitched murmur of the voices in the dimly lit room, the people faceless in the gloom... Through myriad conversations she'd drifted, answering, with automatic responses, the voices which called out to her in the darkness, until one voice laid claim to her undivided attention... And pieces of that one conversation, a few sentences, echoed ceaselessly now, in the silence of her mind... ...you're the only reason he comes here...he's different when you're here... it's like everything stops for him, no matter who he's talking to, when you come in, and he focuses only on you... Selected sentences, the most disturbing, the rest lost in the confusion of her thoughts... It was the second time she'd heard words to this affect. She couldn't discount them this time... And she thought back to the first time she'd heard words with the same disturbing intent; more blunt, less descriptive..."I see something beautiful between you two, or the potential for it..." that voice had said... "I think i see love, so why do you both keep running away from it?" Why had she discounted it before? Why had she refused to see? And why now, did this shaft of pure terror slice through her at these remembered words? She knew that all of this was somehow significant, yet she couldn't understand how... The more she thought, the more questions arose... Why was he different around her? How was he different around her? What did it all mean? Question upon question ran circles in her mind, the answers ust out of reach, creating chaos of already disordered thoughts. For hours, she sat staring into the darkness, following the same endless circle, chasing, but never catching the answers...Again, she went baack over that conversation, simple words, really, but somehoe, vaguely disturbing... "...I think you're the only reason he comes here..." the voice had intoned. "what makes you say that?" she'd asked. "he's different when you're here" it replied. "Different? how so?" was the return. "it's like every other conversation he's having stops, when you come in, and he focuses on only you. It's like he's just waiting for you" came the answer. "focuses? on me? waiting? for me?" she'd whispered. "yes" the reply. "i don't understand..." she'd said then. "i... hummmm... I have to go." and without waiting for an answer, she was gone, out the door, into the fading twilight... For hours, she'd wandered, sometimes running, always moving blindly away. Trying to escape all she'd been told, until she'd found herself here, in this hidden place... Seeking answers to her questions, yet afraid of what she'd find...Eventually, sometime after midnight ,she attempted a different approach. She began to sort back through her memories of him... Back through months of conversations. And suddenly realized that she could clearly recall nearly every instance when they'd exchanged words... She couldn't do that with her other "friends"... And too she remembered times when she'd watched; hidden, no one aware of her presence, and these times, she realized now, he did seem different... And the answers were there, waiting for her, nameless, hidden, but she knew that if she but studied it long enough, they would reveal themselves to her, for good or ill...