Michael's fingers gently brushed the old wood of a rail as the snow fell. Breathing out as he stared down to see a box in his hand. With resolve he pushed on taking a step forward to the door, moving past the white arch and grabbing the knob to the fly screen. He then knocked several times hearing an echo from the other side. A smile plastered on his lips as he stuffed the box into his coat awaiting an answer. Though as he waited his heart ached, feeling the blood pulsate in his ears. Only for the hours to pass and no answer, pulling out his phone he tried calling someone only to hear a deadline tone. His heart clenched as he walked away from the house, his fingers traced an engraved tree in the front yard.
It was a heart that had the initials MK on top of a plus sign and NE. When his index finger stopped tracing the lower ones, sighing he looked away and continued his walk back home. The snow started to thaw as the first spring day came, letting his boots clank against the sidewalk. He paused while lifting his eyes from the ground to see a very young couple laughing at something. Their conversation blurred as cars drowned any chance of hearing what was so funny.
Continuing his walk the snow was completely gone and the trees bloomed with fruits and leaves. Their beauty swayed in the warm winds as people walked past him with sweaters or just plain shirts with no coats. He turned his head to another tree as the weather grew warmer, but he kept his own coat on.
As the first summer day grew hotter he noticed a family at a park nearby, the children were happy and looked well taken care of by an older man and woman sitting and watching from a bench like the previous younger couple who started dating. Not wanting to overstay his welcome he continued on. The tree's leaves are slowly turning from their shade of green to an amber or brown like hue.
The last thing he saw before entering his house was an old couple next door just simply on a rocking bench, the old woman leaning on her husband's shoulder as he simply stared out to the sunset as the cold swept in and snow fell again. Michael exhaled seeing his breath again while watching the snow start to fall. Moving past the door there was a wall of pictures of him, his family and Naomi, smiles on their faces. Some of them had Neo playing with Andrew and Jacob, his younger siblings who are now grown up. Others were simply him and Naomi at picnics, concerts or that of his youth and adopted mother.
With a heavy heart he drops the box into a drawer, a narrowed and lonely brow watching it close. His head turned to a mirror. The only thing that changed was the beard he grew and whatever hair he had was grey, but he still had the scared face he was born with. Chemical burns reached down from his semi-bald head to his neck. Several surgery scars from a cleft lip and underdeveloped nose stitched together from a long time ago. Tired eyes looked from the burns to scar, and his overall features as words from long ago invaded his mind, the white incoherent noise rang in his ears as if the devil himself was trying to force him to remember the hard times.
"Winter always ment death…"
He heard a wail of a creature and pulled the drawer out again, moving some socks to see a gun as he saw a bear come into his yard from the forests nearby, smelling everything including him from behind the sliding glass door. The only thing people heard after that was a bang, and dogs barked at the noise as police sirens wailed.