Il m’a fallu apprendre mot par mot la vie
Comme on oublie

I've had to learn life word by word
How one forgets

The hot Pacific sun beats down on your back, thick and heavy as maple syrup as you walk through the simmering sands which are gritty beneath your feet. Tread lightly, do not leave a part of yourself on this beautiful place.

 The ocean song laps sweetly at your ears, and above, the sky blazes as though a vast kingfisher had spread wide his wings. Let your eye rove, lighting upon figure after figure as the sun begins her lazy tumble towards the ocean depths, but they are not walking through the white sands, not venturing into the gentle sea.

 The wind grows chill now, brushing at you like a thousand tiny feathers and then finally you see them. Atop of a cliff looking out onto the ocean, as the tides crawls in over the sands, two figures, small and insignificant, moving to the edge with careless strides and comfortable silence.

 So young, they seem, too young to be in the midst of this haven. Standing on the top of that cliff, with the wind pushing them into each other and the night gliding in above their heads.

"It's always so warm here," the boy says softly. Look at him, and you see a rare sweetness in his face, a brightness in his eyes as though two stars have abandoned their nightly vigil. "But you're still pale."

 The girl with him smiles. She is oddly pale, slender and white as a willow tree, but her hair is a shocking scarlet miasma, set alight by the fading sun. Is she truly that monster you saw so long ago, walking through a world where she had no part? The features are the same, but the expression is different. There is something soft and fresh there, as though a flower has opened in her.

 "The sun would burn me," she says in a voice mild and musical, the wind carrying her words far. "But I'm not cold anymore." The golden eyes are tender as she looks at the boy. "I have you."

 "I'm glad."

 He draws her back against him, and they stand, watching the sun slip into shadowy waters. And you close your eyes, oh, just to block out this lovely sight and concentrate on that feeling that is bubbling inside you. So much love, so much hope that you never had before.

 "I wish we could stay here forever," the boy says finally with something like regret, his hair turned to black in the gloom. The ocean is an invisible force now, beating regular as a heart and filled with the same depth of mystery and beauty. He is silent, then says quietly, "I wish it were always day, and always summer."

 And you smile, and blink your golden eyes and turn to look up at your soul's joy, who has taken you from the arms of the winter and led you into spring. "The night has its beauty too," you tell him, and tilt back your head to watch the stars that trail across the sky, each finding their own path to unknown fathoms. "We'll see it together. And well...without the winter, how would we know what summer was?"

 He sighs a little, his mouth curving up in that miraculous smile you love so well. "But the cold will be here one day."

 You shrug. "And we will be elsewhere, walking through the summer."

 It will always be summer with your soul's joy. It cannot be otherwise. Sometimes there will be sorrow and there will be anguish, but that is how the seasons spin. As long as there is time, summer will always return.

 My name is Suzanne Ramirez, and I have left the winter far behind.