Autumn Allure.

This is a small extract from a short story I wrote for my Sixth Form newspaper last year. As we prepare to leave summer and move into Autumn, I thought it would appropriate.

“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple...”

April’s mind clung to the remarkable words of J.K. Rowling as they swam sporadically through her mind as though September was still looming. Her East Twinkle tweed coat was buttoned all the way up to the black faux fur lined collar and the blood rushed to the vessels in her cheeks, making her blush with the cold. October was her adorned time of the year. It was the time when the smell of wood burning would catch in her throat and it was the time that the crumbs from her favourite Cinnamon swirl would fall delicately onto the soft fibres of her fur collar as she enjoyed every savouring moment.

She had slinked past an open air market, arm linked with her Mother. The market was jam packed with busy customers who were stocking up for the upcoming winter. She could almost taste the jugs of apple cider and the spices that filled the air and had everyone flooding to the international food stalls. From afar, she could hear the reverberations of children laughing as they helped their parents choose the finest looking Pumpkin to carve, their faces all sticky from the sickly chocolate and tempting toffees that had come from the golden wrappers stuffed in their tiny pockets.

April was lost in this divine moment, this moment of total awe and relaxation. She imagined being sprawled on the sofa back in her flat, the pumpkin candles burning softly in the background amidst the long row of photo frames which sparkled with gorgeous array and held the photographic memories of her pre-Uni days. She paused on a street corner, her hand wrapped around a lamppost as she exhaled and smiled towards the sky above her. “Life is magical” she grinned, “I wish it didn’t have to end”. Everything that once felt dirty in the long exhausting months of summer was now beautiful and brought to life. The leaves that crunched beneath her boots were of warm and myriad hues and she could have kicked them into the air with such magnificence, letting them fall gracefully onto the blanketed pavements.

In that split second she remembered the harrowing expression of her Mother as she clung desperately to her hand. It was not her Mother sat in the patient’s chair, but she herself. She had not received the reassuring look that cleared her life from the haunting illnesses inflicted upon her in all those twenty three years, but the look of doubt and the feeling of lost hope. Her cancer ridden body was being eaten away day by day so this, this spared time, was the time to live those last moments in the place that she loved.

She glanced at her Mother who was not far behind her. She heart silently ached and she forced a smile. “Mum” she breathed, the scarlet surface of her heart darkening to a charcoal black and tightening with a shortness of breath. Her Mother slipped her arm around her shoulder and simply nodded with a “mhmm?”. April felt a great pain coursing through her body, not physical pain, but emotional pain. “When the time comes for me to leave, will you still come here every year?”

With an exchange of watery smiles, they both fell silent.

Reviews

[Mark D]

I totally agree, lovely and sad

[Sarah Drozdz]

I think I enjoyed having a combination of happiness and sadness because that's how life is.

[Marie]

This is both lovely and sad. Ordinarily I don't read excerpts from other works, but this could be a story all by itself.