None

A Story by Amanda Cary

A very short story about Her and None.

Inside her hollow, damp and splitting, was the dark she'd always been accustomed to. The crumbling meat of bark ornate on the walls was fitting for the Autumn air that twirled about a Foxtrot with filtered light, and it danced with delight through holes bored nicely by a hungry hoard of insects. She knew them well, and they visited her morning through night.

She lived alone inside her branch with a grub she called None, and None was a husky young fellow with black beads for eyes and ghostly pale skin. Although the commoner's hand might expect him slimy to the touch, he had a surprisingly satin way about him that she was quite fond of, so she was kind to None and None was as kind to her as could be expected from a grub.

None never much spoke because he had been born with a minuscule grub mouth, but when he did she knew very well it would be of utmost importance, so she listened intently to the things he had to say when he had to say them. He once told her a story of a worrisome woodpecker working diligently on a neighboring branch, and together she and None made plans to send the bird away to a tree unoccupied.

Another time, he sung to her the song of his kinsmen, the ones below the trunk, and spun her tales of the jolly laughter they laughed and cider they drank as a family of grubs. Aside from this, he never uttered another word until one other night, so on that night, she sat cross-legged with eyes like stars twinkling on every twitch of his lips. It meant nothing what the nature of his wisdom was, she was entranced and beckoned by the soft boom of his grubby voice. Above all else, with None she always felt safe and never afraid, and she was only happy to hear him speak.

On this night in Autumn, she felt the chill begin to fall as he spoke to her of a harsh Winter to follow what was a wet Summer before, and how their branch would be due a frightening peril. The water that sunk deep into the splintered walls of their tiny home would be sure to freeze, and the branch they loved as dearly as they loved one another was destined to split from its tree and fall to the ground into pieces. It was a timeless branch, after all, with a history that well preceded their own, and they had always both understood that one day this time would come.

They both knew there was no use in preparation for this, so they could only wait, and None promised above all else that he would hold her hand as they fell. He would not weep, and she would smile, and they would whisper to one another the things they knew turned them glowing inside.

The days crept away in the hollow as the nights became colder, and the creak of their branch was their music. Their steps were light and without haste, as None taught her that heavy feet were the type that would sink them. She laid softly on his side in the warmth of his creases and folds, the smell of his earth so much more friendly than that of a rotting branch, although she loved the lingering scent of her home more and more with each passing second.

None remained quiet and still, only leaving for food, and brought her home petals of wilting blossoms with his return so that she could see the colors. They slept tucked into one another on a sweet bed of mulch that had fallen from the walls of their house, and he buried his grub mouth into her curls and breathed deeply through the hours of the night.

A morning came when the dew settled so thick that no more air could swing through for them to breathe together, and the precious bores that their friends had left were clad into windows of ice. The branch did not sway with her steps any longer, but the holes gifted a prism for the frigid winter sun streams, and she bathed in the colors that filled their dying branch until she knew it was time to kiss None.

She gathered his face in her palms, so tiny and wet against the silken skin of his grub jaw, and she watched tears she had never seen before begin to well into his beady black eyes.

"You will not weep, None," and she kissed his grub lips with such fire that the floor began to shift beneath them, and there was no longer any need for warmth.

"I promise I will smile," and she smiled before kissing his tears and placed his grub face in her curls.

A groan began to howl so deep and low now, so she sighed and closed her eyes as tightly as she could. She clung to his satin as he breathed in her ear, and the rumbling of the breaking branch sent waves through their core.

She pressed her warm face into his creases and folds so that she could feel him move as they fell, and they felt the air begin to fill the branch and pull them, a bough broken with no resistance to a jealous ground, pushing their bellies into their hearts and then into the sky above them.

She remembered their promise as they dropped with such haste, the haste that None had taught her would sink them, that they would whisper to one another the things that turned them glowing inside.

As they fell from the willow, he held her hand. She smiled and he did not weep, and she spoke into his grub ear as he breathed deeply into her curls.

"None, my sweet grub, I love you so much more than any branch or a bug.

You, my darling, are my home and the only place I have ever wished to stay.

I have lived my whole life in the damp of that hollow so that I may fall only for you."

© 2016 Amanda Cary

Author's Note

I purposefully kept the main character vague for imagination's sake and also attempted to use run-on sentences to allow a "fairytale-ish" flow, along with subtle repeat of words. Feel free to critique, please, as this was a spur of the moment story.