New Leaf

"Littlest Things" - Lily Allen



Paris, Autumn 2013.

It is late in the afternoon.  A bus approaches, and at a nearby stop, a woman sweeps her hair back and adjusts the sling to her messenger bag.  With a loud hiss, the door slides open in front of her.  She quickly steps inside the bus, passes the ticket to the driver, and walks to a seat several rows down.

Turning her body towards the opened window, she sinks deeper into her seat.  She lifts her face to the wind and finds its coolness a nice contrast to the warmth underneath her jacket.  She takes in a view of her favorite city—a beautiful mixture of faces, shapes, and colors that blurs and sharpens according to the bus’ speed.

The sight of a young couple kissing catches her eyes, prompting images from ten years past to flash before her eyes.  Clasped fingers and matching gold rings... Honeymoon suites and rumpled sheets... Slow kisses on street corners, and sweet, sentimental gestures.  Moments belonging only to those who believe that true love never dies.

The bus slows down near her destination: a massive steel structure that looms over her as she steps out from her ride into the sidewalk.  A place where memories past and present collide.  She knows what comes next.  Remembrance of a familiar face behind a camera, beckoning her to smile at this very place.

Her feet continues their steps across the pavement, under the shadow of the tower towards the open grounds beyond.  The air is colder now and the wind stronger.  Her eyes focuses on the trees ahead, their golden leaves glimmer against the setting sun.

The phone in her hand rings.  She picks it up, already knowing who the caller is.

“I see you,” she can hear the smile in his voice.

In the distance, a figure holding a phone in his hand comes into view.  Smiling back, she shakes her head, the last remnants of her past disappearing as love’s new face replaces the old.

She whispers softly to the wind, one last farewell to a bygone romance: “I’ve loved you. I always will.”

This week's Red Writing Hood prompt: First, find the song that will be played during the pivotal scene in the movie based on your magnum opus. With that song playing, write that pivotal scene – it’s your choice whether you write it as a screen play or as it’s played out in your novel.  Feel free to embed the song to your blog post . . . you have 300 words