This short story has been sitting on my laptop for more than a year. I’ve forgotten what the original idea was but I like the mood that it captured. Posting here just in case I come up with a sequel for it later 😂

June likes to cuddle whenever she comes over to my place. And when morning came, I would wake up to see that her side of the bed was empty. And when I head out for work, there would only be one pair of shoes waiting for me, my pair of shoes.

Once we were in bed, June told me she could read my mind sometimes, that she gained this ability after a car accident in middle school. She said when she woke up in the hospital, she could hear everyone’s thoughts. I thought that was quite a handy thing to have, to which she then turned to me (without me saying anything), and said “It’s not like what you think. It’s a curse.”

On some days, when “the curse” was strong, she’d disappear for weeks without a trace. There was no way to contact her. She told me that she went to her secret hideout. Where that place is I do not know. She always hung up before I could ask.

This morning, the sky was grey when we woke up, and the news said that there was a rather large storm coming to town. So we decided to clear our schedule and just stay in bed, waiting for it to come.

As we lay watching the trees bending in various directions, she held my arms around her waist and said “The world is so hostile out there.”

The night before, she showed up at my door unannounced after disappearing for weeks. I was drinking by myself, listening to Al Stewart’s “Year Of The Cat” when she came knocking on my door.

In the morning, she opened my curtain to the grey sky and got back in bed. With my arm around her body, we lay watching the backyard through the small window.

“If someday, I must go away again, without knowing when I’d be back. Would you still wait for me?” she said.

I didn’t answer. I kissed her hair and held her tight, feeling her skin on my skin, and her warmth in my chest.

Outside on the lawn, we watched two leaves swirling together, dancing to the violent wind for a brief moment, before one of them got blown away. It flew so far away, leaving the other leaf spinning alone on the ground. Then the wind picked up again, sending everything in the air. We lay in bed, holding on to each other, till the storm was gone, and the dawn chorus started.

I’m sure she knows what was on my mind.