"Forget Me Not"
“Carl, it’s freezing. I don’t understand why we have to do this.”
“It’ll be worth it, Aly. Just be patient.”
Huddled in their sleeping bags, and wrapped in several layers of cotton T-shirts and wool sweaters, Alyssa Newman and Carl Hanson sat together beneath the midnight shade of a sycamore grove. All around, the patterned darkness, comprised of shards of moonlight trickling through the treetops of the arboretum, was still and silent, save for the faint hum of the nearby skyway.
Yep, thought Alyssa. No one up but us danger hunters, freezing our butts off like dorks. Carl’s lucky he’s cute. Otherwise he’d be spending the night out here alone.
Which might have been just as well, for in the handful of hours they’d spent outside, shivering in the cold and sharing a thermos full of lukewarm Moroccan mint green tea, he’d given her no information beyond “be patient.”
Alyssa finally let out an exasperated sigh and faced her partner full.
“Carl. What’s going on?”
Carl smiled furtively and adjusted his The Revisions beanie. “What do you mean?”
“Why the heck are we out here? Is this an assignment or what?”
“Sort of. Something really cool. I looked it up on the Internet.”
Alyssa snorted. “You could have e-mailed me the link. Mackie keeps the Goblin’s Club warm and toasty during the winter, you know.”
“I didn’t want you to see this sitting by yourself in front of some dumb ol’ computer.”
“See what, exactly?
“You’ll see.”
“Ugh! You’re incorrigible! At least tell me why I couldn’t bring my PDA, or my camera—or anything else that could possibly get me some useful footage out of tonight’s little excursion.”
“I told you, you’ll see…”
“Have you discovered tree druids that do their laundry in the nude, after midnight?”
“Maybe.”
“Garden gnomes who will grant us three wishes if we water their lawns?”
“Be quiet, and watch.”
Alyssa sighed, leaned back—and watched in awed silence as the shadows around them suddenly began to shift, as if someone had hung a giant mirror ball above the arboretum. She saw new shapes forming themselves across the grass, along the sidewalk—movement that was far too expeditious to have been caused by the moon’s orbital motion. She looked to Carl for an explanation, but he merely motioned for her to keep quiet and pointed toward the concrete walkway below.
Nature seemed to readjust itself, ever so slightly. The leaves of the trees seemed to glow and glitter with moonlight, illuminating the area below—and it became immediately evident that Alyssa and Carl were not the only ones come to witness the event. Perhaps a dozen or so other watchers of varying ages had also set up their own little campsites along the concrete walkway.
“Carl,” Alyssa whispered, leaning close. “There are other people here.”
Carl nodded. “Yeah, but they won’t see what we’ll be seeing. I got an inside tip. You have to be in just the right spot to feel the real magic. That’s why I didn’t post it in the DHC database. I didn’t want anyone else to know.”
“But we’re Goblins Club members,” Alyssa pointed out. “We’re supposed to document this sort of thing.”
“Shh. Look.”
Alyssa gazed down at the walk again. The light patterns being filtered through the sycamore branches were moving towards a central point, arranging themselves of their own accord. It was almost as if they were alive.
As all this was going on, she became aware of Carl’s arm around her shoulders, his gentle nudging.
“Look,” he breathed.
And there it was, the hidden prize, displayed before them upon grass at their feet: a perfectly-shaped heart, detailed enough to be a wreath made of light, shifting toward them, onto them, encompassing them in its warmth as all around the other watchers gasped in wonder.
“It’s a forget-me-not,” Carl whispered, bringing his face close to hers. “If we kiss under its light, we’ll always be together.” He tilted his head slightly, then, and pecked Alyssa briefly on the lips.
It was enough to defeat the winter cold once and for all.
His breath still warm on her cheek, Alyssa snuggled close. “Forget me not,” she whispered, and shuddered slightly, for she realized she was crying tears of joy.
“What’s wrong?” asked Carl.
“Nothing,” she replied. “Nothing at all.”
[ END ]
