Summer was fading fast this year. A gentle breeze tugged lightly yet firmly at the foliage of the trees, tempting them to relinquish their faithful grip upon the tree that had spawned and raised them. They tumbled carelessly to the cobbled path below creating a soft carpet of dying leaves.
He walked slowly along the path, his footsteps slow and easy as they hit the path and crushed the leaves. He paused for a moment and stared out at the small lake in the centre of the pond, watching as he fading sunlight shimmered upon the tranquil surface. ‘Like dancers upon the ice,’ he mused watching the flickering light as it laughed and winked at him, unaware that its display of sparkling beauty did not fit in with the watcher’s emotions.
Brian lowered his eyes from the sight of the lake. He had had beauty too once. He had held it within his arms and smiled serenely and contentedly. He had believed that he was complete for eternity. Somehow though he had lost that.
He glanced up at the trees that lined the path and saw that the trees were already being overburdened with brown, wilting leaves that did not even hint at the warm and beautiful summer that had just passed. Suddenly he was aware of how fast and quickly beauty could fade into emptiness and decay.
He sat down upon a wooden bench still damp from the afternoon rain shower and stared out at the park. He had come here a lot in his younger days. He had played in the trees with his friends and fished unsuccessfully in the lake with twigs and string. He smiled at the memory, but it soon faded. He was too old now. He was a grown man and there was no room for lazily playing in the park anymore.
He stared at the darkening sky as twilight began to fall upon the world. Alone he watched as shadows crept across the grass and gently probed at the trees. He spent a lot of time alone nowadays, thinking about the past, the future, and the present. It never seemed to amaze him how quickly and stealthily time could creep by and erode away the edges of one’s life.
In his hand he still held her ring. The gold was light in his hands and after a long time he began to forget that he was holding it. It was there though. He rubbed a single finger along it comfortingly. If he concentrated he could still hear her voice in his mind…
‘I love you.’
He could hear her voice speaking those lies that he had so blindly believed in. He had been young and naïve when she first whispered those soothing words into his sensitive ear. He remembered her sweet breath as it had brushed against his neck and then there had been her tender kisses, always so deep and passionate that he had found himself soaring to heaven with outstretched wings every time she kissed him.
She had been beautiful. She had been seventeen when they first met and he had been awed by everything about her. Her hair had fallen past her shoulders in waves of mysterious silk and the dark strands had fit perfectly with the round eyes that hinted at the sensuality and the unseen secrets within her.
He had loved her. His boyish youth had cried out for every part of her body and she had given it to him. She said she had loved him. She said…
But she had lied.
Every word that had fallen from those rose soaked lips he had drunken up like a thirst crazed animal. When she told him they were forever, he had believed her. He had fallen into her arms and given her everything she had ever wanted. In return he could call her his. Her beauty was his and he loved it.
It had been so easy back then. The days had seemed longer and brighter. Every day had been filled with glowing sunlight that drenched his life with warm happiness. He had held her hand as they walked through the park and he remembered smelling the fragrant blossoms as they bloomed above them. Everything had been perfect and right with her. She made his world beautiful.
There had never been anybody but her. Her body was the only one he had ever touched or kissed. There had never been another pair of lips that had connected with his. He had always felt that he was truly blessed to have found someone so soon in life. He had never desired another girl and nobody had ever held his attention like her curvaceous figure could. Just the sight of her hair blowing in the wind beneath the sun used to be able to make him feel weak as a thousand sensations bubbled inside of his chest. She had made him smile in true happiness.
It seemed so long since he had smiled now. He stared down at the ring in his hands and saw how dull it looked without the light sparkling on the gem that nestled within it. She had given him the ring back the day she had left him with him.
She had left him open mouthed as her lover helped her carry her bags out of the house and into the expensive sports car parked out front. He had tried to beg her to stay, tell her that he loved her more than anything in the world, but only one word had uttered from his trembling lips that day: ‘Why?’
The wind blew through his tousled, blonde hair and he ran a hand through it to try and soothe out the unruly curls. He sighed as he saw a couple walking hand in hand beneath the trees. They did not see the autumn about them. No, they still saw summer and beauty.
It was too late for him now. He had been with her for so many years. A young dream of passionate love had blossomed into a full relationship and every morning he had prayed and thanked the person up there who had brought her into his life. He had spent years pleasing her, buying her everything she desired and doing whatever she wanted. Slowly she had drained him and he had not even realised what was happening until it was too late. He had not realised her motive until she had walked out that day with a smile upon her cherub lips as she whispered the words, ‘Because you had money.’
Everything he had ever dreamed of had been based on her greed. He had built a relationship upon a foundation that had been doomed from the very beginning. She had never wanted him. She had never been interested in love. When they first met he had been too young and too naïve to realise the ways in which rich parents could be an attraction to dangerous girls.
Dangerous… but she had been beautiful. He doubted if he would have been strong enough to resist the serpent if he had tried. One touch of those hands upon his bare chest and everything else would have been lost.
He shook his head sadly. He should have seen this before. As the years passed, he should have realised that she was biding her time before she flew away on devil’s wings with laughter coming from her poisonous tongue.
Brian leaned forward on the bench as he caught sight of the young couple kissing beneath the bows of the trees. Young love seemed so far away now, so alien. He had always been told to appreciate his youth, but always he had laughed the comment away with an airy wave of his hand. He had assumed that he did not need to be young, to go out and meet people. He had not needed anybody but her.
Young days were over now. He was over thirty and the days of sitting in the park with a young sweetheart were over. His old friends were married and settled, but he was still alone. He had thought that he would never be alone, but now he was. She had taken everything away from him. She had taken his life.
Now he was left with nothing but painful memories of what once was and what could have been…
The End
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