0o0o0o0o
The days carried on as they always did, despite any half-hearted protests for a halt in time. The holiday season passed them by, and before they could blink, the New Year had begun. Chelsea and Vaughn watched as the snow that had seemed so very formidable in the colder months began to slowly recede. With their exit came the return of flowers and leaves, peering out from earthy orifices. The sun fought to break through the surviving icy days, radiating tenacious warmth on the busting city. The reappearance of small animals pleased Chelsea especially.
"Look," she told Vaughn one day, tugging on his black shirt like an inquisitive child. Both persons had shed their coats at the bench today; the sun was warming their blood enough to do without them. Chelsea had brought two coffees with her today again, courtesy of A Day Latte.
"What exactly am I looking at?" Vaughn asked, giving her a skeptical glance as he sipped at his coffee tersely.
"A chipmunk," Chelsea replied with a smile in her voice, pointing at a small, brown creature rustling the leaves of a nearby shrub. "There used to be a ton of those little guys all over the farm I lived on when I was younger."
"You lived on a farm?" Vaughn queried, surprised. He was constantly getting surprised over this girl, over the things he didn't know about. It was strange, considering how close he felt to her over the course of only a couple of months.
She nodded, and the movement seemed to have alerted the small mammal of their presence. Its head popped up and looked at them with a small nut in its mouth, causing Chelsea to laugh. The sudden sound startled it, however, and the chipmunk darted off further into the greenery that bordered the park's fences.
Chelsea watched it go silently, before abruptly turning her head upward to stare at the towering trees above. Suddenly she turned to Vaughn instead, that smile still gracing her face and turning everything around her a little brighter.
"Can you climb trees?"
"…What?" Vaughn asked, narrowing his amethyst eyes at her strange question. Of course he had climbed trees…After all; he had grown up in the country, too. Tree climbing was a recreational activity that everybody who was anybody could do proficiently.
"Can you climb trees!" Chelsea repeated, jumping a little at the last word. An idea was brewing away in that head of hers; from the time Vaughn had spent with this strange girl, he knew this could be a dangerous prospect.
"Of course I can climb trees," Vaughn scoffed, rolling his eyes sardonically. "Why do you ask?"
"We're going to climb to the top of that tree, over there." Chelsea pointed again in a direction not far from where they were standing now, deeper into the park's boundaries. An elm tree stood where she pointed, one of the few located in the park. Although it wasn't the tallest in the park, its limbs were the most notable, by far. Reaching out in every direction possible, and with nearly unbreakable branches, it was venerable to say the least. New growth sheathed the bark in lush green, suddenly reminding Vaughn that with the imminent arrival of spring, his birthday would arrive soon.
"We?" Vaughn balked, digging his boot's heels into the ground as Chelsea unsuccessfully attempted to drag him along. Fortunately, as usual he had the advantage of superior stature and weight. It was like holding back a kitten. A snarling, obstinate, determined kitten who wanted the bigger dog to play silly kitten games with her.
However, let it be duly noted that the dog regretfully seemed to harbor a soft spot for said kitten.
"Will you please move?" Chelsea grunted, leaning into the ground while pulling on his arm. "C'mon, humor me. Just this once. Unless you really can't climb trees. Then I suppose I could teach you…in exchange for your soul. If you even have one."
"I can climb trees just fine. I just don't see the point of climbing this one," he replied, ignoring the soul comment.
Chelsea sighed again, and looked up at Vaughn with a withered expression. A cleverly disguised sorrow lurked behind it, pressing up against her eyes. But it vanished so fast, Vaughn wasn't sure he saw it at all. Yet another common instance that always seemed to happen around her.
"Do you even know how to have fun, Vaughn?" Chelsea intoned, ceasing her tugging.
Somewhat offended, Vaughn rolled his eyes. "Of course I know how to have fun…"
"When was the last time you had this 'fun' you speak of?"
Vaughn colored a deep crimson when he couldn't come up with a specific time after several seconds. He paged through memory after memory, and although he recalled times in which he was content...He couldn't recall the last time he had actual fun.
"Um," he managed lamely. Chelsea tsked at him teasingly, and smiled crookedly at his uneasiness.
"Obviously you don't have enough of it, if you can't remember. So let's go."
This time, Vaughn didn't try and stop her from pulling him in the direction she wanted. He was lost in thought again, unsettled. When had his life turned boring and dull, an endless cycle of dreariness?
He didn't feel like it was. Not anymore, at least. Not in the last few months.
Vaughn nearly bowled over Chelsea as she stopped suddenly at the base of the tree, grinning up at it mischievously. After a few seconds, she frowned and furrowed her eyebrows before glancing waywardly at Vaughn.
"Get on your knees, big boy."
Vaughn spluttered on his coffee mid drink, nearly doubling over as spasms of coughing racked his chest. Chelsea watched him with a detached amusement as he gathered his bearings, looking up to her quite dizzily after a few seconds.
"What…did you say?"
To his surprise, Chelsea giggled uncomfortably and turned a charming shade of pink. "I didn't mean it to sound…bad. I just…Would you help me get up there?"
Vaughn chuckled at the direction the conversation had unintentionally turned, and before Chelsea could argue he scooped her up from the ground and placed her on his shoulders. A surprised "Oh!" rushed from her mouth, followed by bubbly laughter.
"I didn't mean like this, you dork! But now that I'm up here…Could you go stand right under that branch?" Chelsea asked, steering him in the right direction. Her hair brushed against the left side of his face, giving Vaughn the goose bumps. He brought her directly underneath a particularly thick branch, when he felt her shift positions.
"Don't move," she muttered, as he felt her precariously stand up on his shoulders and grasp the branch. She swung into the tree, smooth like she had been living in one for the past winter. The leaves disguised her within, so it was only from hearing her voice that he could pick at her location.
"Come on up!" Chelsea hollered from above his head. "Unless you're chickening out."
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Vaughn mumbled, pulling himself up into the twisting tree limbs with ease. His long legs made it easier to reach and navigate through the maze of branches, and he quickly found himself at the top of the Elm, his head poked through the leaves. He was surprised at the height they had climbed to, how far from the ground the Elm was in reality. Chelsea stood next to him, her face glowing with marvel. She looked to him and grinned big.
The entire park was visible from where they stood, like a spread out map. Green caps of trees freckled the land, and the full expanse of the shadowy blue pond stretching across the park could be seen. The people who milled about, more in number due to the warmer weather, looked insignificantly small. Up there, the wind tossed around their hair and nipped at their flushing cheeks. The air tasted fresher and cleaner, and every inhale sent a pleasurable chill through their bodies.
Vaughn could see well past the trivial park fences as well. He took in the vendors on the streets below, the cars zooming by. He could see the items in the windows of several shops; wedding dresses, savory food delicacies, even baby apparel. A performer was attracting the attention of many passersby with the rich, romantic notes of his violin. Dollars littered the inside of the case, and Vaughn watched as a couple seemed to appear out of nowhere and begin dancing in harmony with the resonant piece.
"Oh," Chelsea breathed, and a sudden chuckle rumbled through Vaughn's chest. "I feel like I'm on…a plane or something."
Vaughn raised his eyebrows fallaciously, but found himself allowing a small grin to break through his wind-bitten skin. "On a plane, you're much higher than this."
"You've been on one before?" Chelsea inquired dreamily, staring at him wistfully. "I hope to go on one, someday…Tell me about it?"
As they watched their park stir with life below them, Vaughn told her about the few plane rides he had been on in the duration of his lifetime. He enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness that came with flying, knowing that he was thousands of feet in the air, and strangely enough, thinking about the possibility of the plane suddenly just dropping from the sky. It didn't scare him, like it may for most people. He was merely intrigued by the million-to-one chance that it could happen.
He told her about how the land looked when you were flying. The flatter lands for agriculture, the way they looked like assorted squares of brown and green. The seemingly boundless lengths of bodies of water, how if you looked closely enough you could often see the largest vessels drifting across the waves. But most of all, Vaughn liked seeing the mountains. The rise and fall of land in graceful arcs, snowcapped and rugged.
In a darkly ironic way, Vaughn could compare himself to a mountain, both physically and mentally. Few who attempt to climb a mountain make it completely to the peak.
"Wow," Chelsea said in response. The sun had begun its descent as Vaughn talked. The sky was a milky blue in color, with the occasional pink blotches that faded to purple farther out into the sky.
"I think that's the most I've ever heard you say at one given time," she said, glancing at Vaughn with a teasing glint in her eye.
"And you'll be lucky to ever hear me say that much again," Vaughn replied dryly, attempting to stretch out his tiring legs. As often happened around Chelsea, time had been lost on him. How long had they been standing at the top of this Elm tree?
"Aw, by now I think you should know I'm kidding," she laughed. "I don't know about you…but my legs are killing me, balancing on this branch. Race you down?"
"Don't kill yourself or me trying to get there first," Vaughn warned, but Chelsea was already halfway down. Vaughn cautiously lowered himself afterwards, nearly losing footing in the swiftly encroaching darkness.
His feet hit the ground with a thud, and Vaughn looked up through strands of his hair to see Chelsea a few feet away, staring up at the moon that had come out of hiding. She was slightly raised on her toes, her arms parted off behind her. It gave the impression that she was stretching towards the moon, yearning to be close to it.
"I'll walk you back to your apartment," Vaughn said, and without another word Chelsea followed him out of the park willingly. The bistro sang its heart out as they passed it by, an old ditty Vaughn concluded had a good sound.
"Look at the stars," the willowy girl walking next to him said, and Vaughn followed Chelsea's gaze to the sky. They stopped at the steps to her apartment building, staring up at the constellations that seemed to be forming right before their eyes.
"Those stars are already dead, you know. I once read something about by the time the light from stars reaches us on the earth, those stars are already burned out."
There was something vaguely sad about that, if it was true, Vaughn thought. Had nobody ever seen a star while it was still burning with life? Was every star they had ever seen a mere ghost of its already extinguished self?
"I like the moon better anyway," Vaughn found himself blurting. He felt Chelsea's eyes on him, but ignored the sensation it gave him. He was long used to it, by this time.
"Have you ever wanted to leave this city behind?" Chelsea asked him suddenly, slowly walking up the stone steps. "See what else is out there to offer?"
Of course he had. Occasional traveling was a part of his job, explaining his trips on an airplane. But he was convinced that there wasn't much else to offer out there. However tempting it was to think that there was a bigger, better place out there just waiting. As the saying went, the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence.
"Yeah, I have. Why?"
She shrugged lightly, closing her eyes. "I'unno. I suppose I'm just curious, is all. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. What does this town even have to offer?"
"A lot. Plenty of jobs, decent pay, places to live…"
"But there's so much more to life than that, right? Sometimes I feel like I'm being suffocated in this city…"
Chelsea leaned against the railing on the steps, watching Vaughn with those depthless sapphire jewels, freezing him in place. The synapses in his brain shuddered, and he couldn't look away.
"What makes you think whatever's out there is better than here?"
Immediately, Vaughn regretted what his response upon seeing Chelsea's reaction. Her expression shut down, and a wall shot up in its place. She became unreadable; a hollow feeling squeezed in between Vaughn's ribcage.
"I don't know. If I stop believing that there might this whole other world that I'm just not aware of yet, what will happen then? I've got to keep dreaming…"
Chelsea walked up the remainder of the steps, and pushed open the apartment building's front door. She stepped halfway inside, before turning to look at Vaughn again. He stood at the bottom of the steps, rooted to the spot. Turned to stone.
"Goodnight, Vaughn. I hope you had fun climbing trees today. And thanks for walking me back home." Chelsea smiled once, and a flicker of her old self was there, before she shut the door.
Vaughn blinked, and with a growingly familiar sense of dread, began the long shuffle home. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was changing; something was shifting the world around him. It surrounded him like a dismal cloud.
0o0o0o0o
The cherry blossoms on the trees always seemed to appear in the days surrounding Vaughn's birthday. As he had expected, the third day of March, of fully-fledged spring, provided an abundance of them. Light pink dotted the ground beneath the columns of cherry trees lining the main path of the park.
Vaughn sprawled his long legs out across their bench, exhibiting a rare instance of fatigue. Despite it being his birthday, he had suffered a particularly tiresome day of work. Opportunely, Chelsea had told him the previous day she would be late to the park today, so he had the time to sit back and silently work through the headache that was forming in his temples. Placing his Stetson over his face to block the angle of sun that shone in his direction, Vaughn closed his eyes…
"Wake up, Vaughn. Sleepyhead. Wakey wakey. Your present is going to get cold, wake up! Lazy man…get up!"
Vaughn promptly awoke in the midst of falling to the ground, executing rather ungraceful movements on the way down. Cracking his head on the ground, he groaned, and blearily opened his eyes to see a grinning Chelsea standing above him. Her dog, which she had ended up giving the name Levitt to, yipped cheerfully down at him as well.
"Didn't have to shove me off the bench…" Vaughn growled, sitting up gingerly. He adjusted his Stetson and got up, ignoring Chelsea's offered hand. She rolled her eyes in response, but grinned up at him sweetly.
"You weren't responding to anything else. And besides, I need to give you your present. "
"Present…?" Vaughn asked.
"Don't play dumb with me, mister. Of course I know it's your birthday. And being the good friend I am, I made you something."
Fishing around in her knapsack, Chelsea pulled out a covered Tupperware bowl, and thrust it into Vaughn's hands, beaming. Her mood had lifted from the thoughtful brooding one of the previous week. Bubbly and friendly, this personality was natural to her being.
"What…?" Vaughn muttered, looking to Chelsea for an explanation. "How did you know…?"
"I have my ways," Chelsea interrupted with a wink. "You think I wouldn't somehow find out when your birthday was? How old are you turning anyway?"
"Twenty-six," Vaughn said, before he fell into silence, simply staring with wide eyes down at the bowl. It was purple, much like his own eyes. Briefly he wondered if she had done that on purpose. He was sure it would taste good; anything Chelsea could have cooked for him would taste good.
"Th…Thank you," he stuttered, his tongue betraying him. "This is…one of my favorites. How could you have possibly known? Don't remember telling you… S'pose it don't really matter, I'm just curious…"
Chelsea's smile grew before his eyes, and for some reason Vaughn felt the need to pull his hat down so it would shield his face. "Gosh, Vaughn. If I knew giving gifts flustered you to the point of talking this much, I should do it more often!"
Vaughn glared as his face darkened more. "I'm not flustered. You're imagining things."
She giggled again, a favored sound to his ears, and shuffled up to him with arms held wide. Vaughn narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what she was doing.
Taking initiative, Chelsea tackled Vaughn in a hug, her tiny arms barely managing to loop all the way around his torso. Slowly, Vaughn hugged her back, his touch sensitivity off the charts. He felt her slender frame, the curve of her body. Her heartbeat ricocheted off his own chest, and he wondered if it was only his own breathing that seemed impaired.
She was the first to let go, with a quiet "hmm" noise. Vaughn lowered his arms so they were touching hers. The exhaustion from earlier had all but disappeared; his body was coursing with energy now, itching to escape in any way possible.
They remained in this semi-embrace for a few more seconds, until Chelsea sighed and dropped her arms. Vaughn did the same, looking anywhere but her face.
"Ah…I guess we should be leaving. It's already late, so-"
Soft lips touched the edge of his jaw, and the words fell soundless from his mouth. Then they were gone, and a half-lidded Chelsea pulled away.
"I'll see you later then, Vaughn. Hope you have a nice rest of the night. And hope the porridge is okay!"
Being the mysterious girl she was, Chelsea was gone from his sight before he could blink twice. Vaughn gently touched his jaw, before realizing a select few people around him chuckling and smiling at him. Looking around, he noticed quite a few more people giving him the thumbs-up, or winking.
He high-tailed it out of the park as fast as he could.
0o0o0o0o