Pollution

Beijing pollution

Spring breezes ricochet off the taller mountains that lay above the small town. The breezes tendrils touching and drifting over cold rock and glaciers, lowering its temperature further before this new mighty wind meanders through the twists and turns of dales and trees as it makes its way to the valley floor.

This wind has traveled far and now even as it touches her skin, it is still cold from running over snow. Drying gardens and lawns with it's incessant blow she notices as she walks down the sidewalk looking up at the neighbors yard but she has to pay more attention to the path below her that is broken and in disrepair littered with weeds, shit and winter debris. Glad she put on a jacket before leaving her house and reached up again in impatience to move her hair out of her face as the spring wind twisted and turned the air and the strands in mad circles.

Hush, she thinks and is more than ready for the wind to hush it's moans, moves and continuous onslaught that marks Spring in the mountains. Dodging an errant bush that has invaded the sidewalks girth she moves back onto her path. A car comes around the corner, and it is the neighbor from up the street. He slows down and waves then stops as he gets closer and recognizes her. She leaves the sidewalk to make her way over to the passenger window smiling at him in a friendly way, even though she doesn't like him. It's a gut hunch and a few odd brushes with him that leave her with the feeling she knows she should trust her intuition.

"Hey how are you doing," he says as he grins and leans across the car to stare up at her with his huge wolf smile.

"Oh you know me, breaking hearts and slaying dragon's." He laughs heartily and she smirks and shrugs her shoulders because she really means it she thinks, breaking hearts and slaying dragon's. That is what she has been up too lately. Although the dragon is just a troll really. And she never wanted to break anybody's heart along with her own but sometimes it was the only option in a situation.

He looks away staring up the road and then turns to stare at her again, "Haven't seen you in awhile."

She shook her head and moved her hair out of her face again turned away from him and stared out at the spring view. "And you won't, laying low staying out of trouble." She wanted to end the conversation, but waited to see if he would first. He didn't and there was an uncomfortable silence as they both said nothing for long moments. She could hear though as he smacked the steering wheel a couple of times, he started to say something a couple of times, would change his mind and smack the thing again. She rolled her eyes more so at herself for not ending this.  She bent down to look into the window again and excused herself to move on. But he stopped her by saying her name. She sighed softly and met his eyes. Then looked away again, she did not want him to see anything in her eyes especially hurt and the longer she stood here the more she thought about the things she did not want to thing about.


He pursed his lips and turned his head to look back out over the steering wheel one forearm casually resting there, stared up the street into the distance. "I'm sorry" he said. "it sucks and it's just not the same anymore without you guys together."

She moved her face into a hard unreadable mask and moved back away from the car and shrugged. "It had to be done. I got to go, see you later." She walked away from the car, ignoring him when he tried to call her back, pretending she did not hear him. She could hear him finally move the car on up the street and with relief she crested the hill above town and smiled at the day that framed the busy downtown core as she walked toward it. First getting her mail and then crossing the street to the coffee shop to grab a cup of tea. It was a hothouse of gossip and she left quickly.

She thought to herself, there I did it. I got out of the house, and now I can go home. Get away again from the mouth pollution that stinks and dirties a small town. Gossip is mouth pollution she decided as she cut across the park to take a different route home. The hot tea in the paper cup warmed her hand and she moved it to the other one to do the same for it and then pulled the strap of her bag she carried her mail in back over her shoulder when it slipped doing it. At the edge of the park she cut away and took the small incline through the pine forest bordering the park. It smelled like new earth and dew on leaves and she moved up the trail carefully to avoid the wet branches of new spring growth.

After being the brunt of insidious gossip for the last couple months she had retired from it. Realizing that you can heal yourself faster by staying away from it and not engaging it further. She thought of a picture of Beijing China she had seen recently the city was covered in a smog so thick that you could not see through it and she rather thought that even the sweet air of this mountain town might be the same thing as the dirty city just dirty with words.