Leading Empty

And over the locked gate she went. The road stays closed, but only from moving cars and trucks. The dogs were already ahead, barely stopping to look and make sure she was still behind them. Or to pee on the already dead grass. It wasn’t dead enough they seemed to think.

Birds were loud and cheery and opinionated, but she couldn’t find them among the sun touched trees. She walked without purpose though the camera was prepared for anything. She held no expectations other than to clear her mind of the unwelcome webs of ugly whispers gathering in the invisible mirror that walked in front of her. So she focused on what she could see to the left and right.

The dogs crunching the depth of the grounded brown leaves to the right, and the faint blue flat glimpse of the lake to the left. The dogs heard the disappointing whistle and turned to go back. She too turned but with hesitation of having to face those that she she felt judged by. And that was a small portion of them. Does that mean they did? Nope. But the mirror still whispered.

She tried to stare straight ahead directly pass that mirror that no one else could see. The closer those people got, the whispers began to not be so soft. Whispers became loud voices which became repetitive rumors which became facts that people believed. She knew this because the panic in her body told her so.

She hauled herself back over the gate, finally almost back to the beginning. A speedy blink to the left revealed a beautiful winged friend. Something that brought joy and slashed those whispers and rumors and facts back to oblivion for however long her body needed them to be there. She actually took a real breath and the lens rose.

And she captured the moment of relief. She grasped with the push of that button the texture of the feathers blown slightly by the wind, the tiny talons gripping the tree branch, and the slightly small beak pointing upwards into the sky. In that moment, she was grounded.

She was back in a place with no mirrors. No walls or whispers. Sunshine and excitement of what she had in a little black card took over. And she will hold on to that until it can carry her no further, and she must find another road.