He looked down at that grass and it reminded him of a lonely park, where he and Sarah used to go. It was never very well kept up, never visited by anyone other than the two them as far as James knew. The grass grew tall, and the hills were wild with dandelions whose seed would rise in a silvery cloud in pollen season. On one particular night, they holed up there, braving a storm, just to see if they could, just to be together in the lee of a tall strong tree and hold each other against the wind. The rain came down hard that evening, but the tree sheltered them. They held each other in the shadow of the tree, the tall grass kept the slashing winds from drenching them. It was as if they were safe within their own little warren. They stayed dry and warm for the most part until the sun rose again, they shared kisses while the thunder rumbled in the sky. They shared secrets when the sky turned bleak, when it filled with an eerie light. He learned more about her in that single night than he’d learned in all the other days they were together. She was a quiet girl and didn’t like to talk about herself much, but for some reason when the sky opened up she did too.

            He remembered thinking that after the storm, they’d never been closer, and that they’d never be apart again after that experience. But time makes fools of us all. Their relationship turned out to be no less fleeting than the storm itself, than dusk, than dawn and he wondered if the green grass still grew tall, there, did the old tree still stand and if he asked her, now, to go there with him would she say yes, or no?

            He’d heard at times that she had a boyfriend and at others that she was single. He always feigned indifference, but he followed her life closely from a distance. Even now if he was in a room with someone that knew her, he found himself searching their eyes, working the conversation around to subjects that might lead them to divulge a little of how things were with her. For all the time they’d loved each other, with such a will and passion, and for all that they hated each other upon parting… after all was said and done he’d walk through fire for her right now, in this moment, if she needed him to, if she only asked him to. And he still dreamed about her some nights, and woke up staring at his phone, even cycling through the numbers to her name where it still sat, exactly as it had been from the first moment when she gave it to him, and told him not to lose it, and he had an inkling that maybe there was a chance for something to grow between them, for a tiny crack to form in the façade he wore, a crack just large enough for her light to shine through. He saw all of that in his minds eye, looking at the grass beneath his folded hands and the green grass reminded him of other thing too…