It’s freezing out here. The trees are bare black against the stark white of the sky. It’s the sort of sky you can’t tell the time of day by looking at, because it’s been white from morning to dusk.

The time happens to be three in the afternoon. It’s an unremarkable time, and, chances are, no one is looking for me. Good. I want this scene to myself. Laying on my back, the snow soaking through my coat, I can’t imagine another moment so nakedly beautiful. There is a beauty to the sort of death that winter is, where the leaves and colors fall away to reveal the skeletons of the world.

I can see my frozen breath rising from my body and twisting in the bitter gusts of air, but only when it passes in front of the trees. The sky and ground render it invisible.

“Hollie!”

As I wish I could be. My introspection ends with that shout. Shutting my eyes tightly, I try focus on other things. Daven.

Babe, sometime, I’m gonna go away. You just get to choose to come with me or not.

It’s snowing again. You’d like it.