A PERFECT PLACE
She had returned every day since she had found this place and would sit next to the creek for hours on end. It was her perfect place, her secret refuge from the immensity of the world.
The mossy banks provided a perfect perch and she would languish away the days, content in her solitude. It was an oasis, and her secret little place allowed her mind to wander. Thoughts would come and thoughts would go, and she was happy to let them drift away without consequence.
She stared into the smooth waters, marveling at the clarity of the skies and the trees that were reflected back at her.
She had spent most of the morning breaking off small pieces of twig and throwing them up stream so that she could watch them drift lazily back past her and on towards the faster currents just around the bend. She lay back in the billowing grass that tickled her cheeks and watched the clouds waft by in their warm sea of wide-open blue.
Around noon she grew restless and decided she had done enough cloud gazing reverie.
She opened her backpack and ate the small lunch that she had packed. When she was done, she packed away the garbage and gathered a handful of small pebbles. One by one she tossed them into the water, watching as the rings undulated slowly outward before fading into nothing.
A fat sucker fish swam into view and she watched as it paused just off the creek’s bank where it drifted lazily in place, a random flick of the tail more than sufficient to keep it stationed in the soft current.
It grew steadily warmer as they day progressed. It was like that on these mid summer afternoons and by the time the forest had filled with the droning chorus of cicadas, the heat was almost unbearable.
She cast a nervous glance around her to reaffirm that this place was not one that would be stumbled upon by accident, then slowly rose to her feet. She slowly stripped off her clothing and immersed herself in the cooling water. The cool trickle of water over her sun baked flesh was a feeling like no other. When she had swum enough, she climbed back out and lay down in the grass to let the sun’s warm embrace dry her off before getting dressed again.
This was definitely a perfect place. Birds fluttered past overhead, chirping their happy music and squirrels chattered excitedly in the dark tops of the evergreens, but there were no other noises. No traffic, no car horns, no people.
She was happy she had found this place. For now it would be her secret, but maybe one day she would find someone important enough to share it with. For now though, she was quite content in her own secret little world.
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