September

September was approaching with the promise of a new start to a year that was already 9 months old. On a warm August evening Naomi sat facing the sea. The moon was full beaming light across the sea directly in front of Naomi who, quite peculiarly, did not feel like she needed a jacket. The moon's rays were enough to warm her. Naomi thought, reflected, and reminisced. Soon she would be back at college in the north east of America. No doubt she would feel cold because even though she loved the colours and the beauty of the four seasons, she was cold for three of them.

The sight of the moon and the sea made Naomi recall a childhood memory. She was ten-years old and with her slightly elder sister, Rachel. They were at a museum. Naomi was dumbfounded by what she saw. She was not impressed by the magnificent colours and images created by masterful strokes of the paintbrush, but by the fact that the eyes of the portraits were following her no matter which angle or direction she stood. Was this just a figment of Naomi's imagination? The sisters decided that the best course of action was to conduct an experiment. Naomi stood staring at one of the paintings from one angle and Rachel from another. ‘It's looking at me', Rachel declared. ‘No, it's starring straight at me', Naomi interjected. There was silence. What did this mean? Fear entered Naomi's heart and she trembled, but she was rescued by the embrace of her older sister.

Naomi could not help but feel that the summer had been a warm disappointment. Her hopes of spending quality time with Rachel were cruelly dashed when Rachel invited her boyfriend Jason over for the summer. Divulging secrets and endless chatter into the long hours of the night were no longer feasible expectations. The problem was Jason. He was a 6 foot 5 inch muscular sissy who behaved more like Rachel's gossip buddy than the field athlete he supposedly was. Everything Naomi would tell Rachel would no doubt be told to Jason while they took their little walks and whisper and giggle to one another. All summer Naomi kept silent about her first year in college. She did not speak a word about the books she read, about the friends she made or about Adam, the graduate chemistry student she kissed under the oak tree by the main college quad. They met when Adam saw her reading JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye in the cafeteria. Jokingly he told her it was his favourite book because he uses it to keep his wonky kitchen table even. A week later she realised he was not joking because she noticed it under one of the legs as they sat eating pizza in his apartment.

Naomi smiled to herself as she looked towards the horizon. In the distance she saw the figure of a man walking towards her. As he came closer Naomi realised that the man who was enjoying an evening stroll was also enjoying staring out to the sea enjoying the moonlight. He too must have been thinking that the moonlight was directly facing him. Naomi felt slightly chilly, it was the September breeze.