cutting ties

Vaelyn approaches the lobby in silence, watching over the dawn as it rises above the trees, and basks in the beams through the window. She ignores the conversations of the other patients around her, the tasks of her morning halted by the preparations for her departure, and she stares off into the lush green of the horizon. Beyond the field where basketball courts and metal fences dig into the soil, Vaelyn eyes a young girl as she presses light footsteps into a hill above them.

The young girl wears a white polo shirt tucked in bright blue shorts, her short blonde hair dancing in the winds with a white lotus fitted under her strands. Vaelyn looks out to the child, but as the light glistens over it, she realizes that the child can't see her. She watches as the lotus reaches for the branch where they met, looking up from the edge of the hill, and climbs onto the trunk. She grips her hands on the bark and reaches for the branch again. In her efforts, she grabs the loop of a rope and lands on the ground with her hand wrapped around the coil.

Vaelyn stares closely, realizing that she can't stop the child from experimenting with the rope, and tries to wave in response. The child finds no one to call to her as she tugs the rest of the rope down from the branch. It swings exposed in the shade of the growth, the child undisturbed from her findings, and she carefully steps back to observe it.

Vaelyn beats on the window, trying to get the child's attention, but the knocks of the glass only echo into meaningless thumps far in the distance. The child reaches for the end of the rope. Her hands wrap around the loop as tight as the bear she held before, her innocence obscured by the dark of the forests, and grips its swirls as she lifts herself to the loop.

Vaelyn watches in terror as the child climbs up the rope, unknowing of its malice, and wraps her hand around the threads. As the child's weight is lifted from the soil, it holds it with a heavy tug, and the tree begins to shake. The child tugs on the rope, over and over, screaming at the cord in disgust. Her hands rip the rope, slowly starting to loosen its knot, and she presses her foot in the loop.

She tugs once.

She tugs again.

She tugs a final time.

With a loud snap, the crack of the branch snapping from the tree echoes with the hollow burdens of the past. The rope falls to the ground and sends every burden hidden in the soil to lift to the skies. The birds of the forest race up from the growth together, following the lifted weight of the world, and the child holds the last of the rope as it gently slides off of her fingers.

A petal floats down to replace the threads, the white stray from the flower in her hair landing in her palm, and she looks to the hospital window in pride. Vaelyn stares back, a wind of relief swinging through the glass, and she watches the lotus as she steps out into the sunbeam where the branch once was.

The child releases the petal to let it float off into the air. Instead of twirling down to the ground, the wind pushes it off to an unknown destination and guides it to a new home. The child steps over the rope, the lotus in her hair imperfect, but her beauty still remains even greater than the star that conquers the sky. Vaelyn and Katherine gaze at each other with the same enchanting, genuine affection that the sun and moon give when they cross in orbit without the shadow of another planet to keep them separated.

In all their light and glory, watching over the earth in their undying care, they'll follow one another forever as they travel through the sable of reality. Through the innocence of the sun and the pearl beams of grace swirling from the moon, they shelter the earth in their lights and find their home in the affinity they hold for one another. Their luxury rests in their love, and the shadows they cast are always ones to fill. They are entwined eternally in the nature of the universe.