She pushed open the enormously mammoth iron gates of Staley Graveyard. She wiped the mossy dew that adhered to her hands in the process of edging the gate forward. She stepped onto the cool wet grass and took small but equal steps over the first small graves. The night, with its tail still heavily planted in the morning, spilled its foggy contents over the graveyard. She glided past the antediluvian gravestones that seemed to have been there since the beginning of time and showed the signs of this aging.

           The fog became too thick for a moment, and her breath grasped her lungs. She moved toward the enormous oak tree that she knew too well. As the night began its grand exit and the day's sleepy eyes slowly unlocked, she noticed the dewy glaze that was now being cast over the graveyard. She put her hands against the great oak and felt as if its own entity, its own being was slowly entering her. The entire graveyard, with its expiration and dissolution, was fully alive within her.

           She took the last few strides to the massive gravestone with the signs of time written on its surface also. She knelt to it and closely gazed at its immense cracks which poured through it, each one with its own idiosyncrasies. They drifted off into small thin lines and then diminished into the decrepit cement.

           She whispered her usual three words. "Good morning Adel."

           A slow minute passed before the earthy voice arose from the soil. "Good morning."

           The cold began to seep into her body; any form of heat was quickly exuding from her. This would have to be a quick greeting.




© 1998 Stefanie E., all rights reserved
 appears here by permission