The sky was making a horrid rumbling sound, some stranger was strolling among the trees with a rather foul animal and among all that, her pulse could barely be felt. Nathaniel sighed a heavy breath of steam against the chilly air. With the shiver in his body, he knelt, leaning over the wooden window to check for the indicator from above. Leaning back he looked at his Alice.
Damp brown hair guarded her face from his piercing eyes. Failure once again. Nothing but the worst for Nathan.
He met her at the grocery store. It had been several years since he last laid eyes at her. She looked as gentle as his faded memories. The last thing Nathan would want to do is surprise her, so he decided to take a simpler and quiet approach. Watching her get into her car from his own they took off into the sunset, one after the other as he promised to protect her. She needed his protection.
He watched her get out of her car, carrying all her bags with much trouble. As a friend he should offer her a hand, right? He hurried down the street, tagging each tree he passed till he approached her.
"Seems like you're having a bit of difficulty, need a hand?" His eyes sparkled with hope of an invitation and a recognition.
Her eyes scanned the man approaching her hastily. "Oh, um, no thank you."
"Are you quite sure?"
"Yes." Flatly the woman declined him. Alice.
"Alice, it's me. It's Nathan. Alice, don't you remember me? Alice? What are you doing?" He grabbed her arm, "Look Alice, it's me. Surely you are Alice."
Her eyes glared at him as if he was a stranger. "Have they done something to you Alice? No Alice, don't scream, you never scream. You sing Alice, don't scream. No, shh. Shh." He grabbed her into his embrace touching her chapped lips gently.
"That's better." The plastic was cool against his thumb and her lips warm against his palm. It gleamed silver in the light as her body was carried away into her dreams. He laid her into the backseat of her car, uncurling her frozen hands from her keys. I'll take her home, she needs to be home with her family so I can protect her.
The car bumps along an unfamiliar path and a woman gently sings a tune while the boy sits in his wooden swing. The wind flowed in his black curls and he watches the woman's brown hair stream with the shirt she hangs up on the line. She turns around to him and beckons him to her with a smile brighter than the sun's engulfing light. She leans down like an angel in white as the boy now stands in front of her, offering her a button for her song. He scampers away among the white linen, feeling the soft cloth against his cheeks. He looks up towards the sun through the trees' leaves knowing that no one else could find him. But as the sky dampens, the singing chokes out.