leaf, siblings, dark

leaf

Today's leaf is a maple in the corner of  The Grove. This particular tree has leaves of different colours in the Autumn, some are burgundy, others deep yellow. This leaf has a mixture of the two colours. I look forward to passing it on most days.

I pass two elderly women. They are too close in age to be mother and daughter. They are in their sixties or seventies. They are clearly sisters, perhaps twins. They have the same long face, the same cropped hair cut. The same withdrawn expression. I try to imagine them as children or young women.

In the dark a dog chases a ball thrown by a man with one of those ball throwers you see nowadays - there is a receptacle for the ball at the end a longish, plastic handle for swinging round, which adds force to the throw. The poor dog runs frantically over the wet grass in the fading light, round and round in circles, he runs.  He can neither see nor smell the ball. The owner rescues the ball and hurls it into the shadows, and the dog charges after  it full of hope.