TO WALK ALONE CORAL other JOHNSON The fallen leaves crunched beneath her feet as she walked across the fading lawn and onto the sidewalk. She could feel the warmth of the afternoon sun on her back and shoulders as it filtered through her coat. A thin breeze lifted scattered leaves. She smiled. The motion reminded her of the hysterical wail of the opening measure of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Her own private mental concert resounded. She scuffed through the leaves as she walked. She walked along the maple-lined street, hands resting in the pockets of her coat, collar ruffling her black hair, brown eyes staring at the leaves scattered over the walk. The autumn air brushed her face, stimulating a complexion as perfect as the pink blush of unglazed china in a Japanese doll. | | She walked along the sidewalk, a row of half naked maples on one side, browning lawns, white frame and brick cottages on the other. The sunlight, sifted by the remaining leaves and scantly clad branches, fell across the walk in disarrayed patterns. She watched the sparse leaves swirling to the heaps along the walk. She scuffed through the heaps as she came to them. She could smell the slight sulfur smell of burning leaves. She walked on. | She thought of the day the chemistry classes had done experiments with sulfur, and of the pungent odor. She remembered staring at the floor as the light from windows on the (16) side of the lab glazed the checker-board tiles, newly-waxed. She remembered how she had blown up her test tube by heating it too much. She laughed at the thought of how the two boys at her lab table suggested that they do their experiments cooperatively. She thought of how she had spilled sulfuric acid across her hand, and of the confusion that followed with everyone trying to help her wash it off. She thought of the nights spent under the glare of the lights at the library. She rememebered how difficult it seemed for her to keep her mind on her asignment. If she didn’t talk to one person or another, someone talked to her. Pulling her hand from the pocket across the lawn. She stopped at the front steps. She remembered a ceremony she hadn’t thought of in years. Right foot on the first step. Left foot up to meet it. Right foot back to the walk. Left foot back to the walk. First step again: right foot then left. To the second step: right foot, left foot. Back to the first step, right and left. She stepped on the second again AFTERNOON and laughed because she had remembered. She ran across the porch, swung open the front door, and let it slam behind her. ‘Is that you, dear?” her mother asked, calling from the kitchen. “Yes, Mom, it’s me.” “Did you walk home alone, dear?” “Well. . . . Yes, Mom, | walked home alone.” AT WILLARD BAY of her coat, she reached for a branch, broke off a twig and began to break it up into small pieces. She turned the corner scuffing through the last heaps of maple leaves and walked down a narrower side street. She watched the miniature parachutes of milkweed float across the walk, dropping the bits of stuffed her hands into She recalled the chill April breeze the night had had three hours, and maple twig, her pockets. of the early she and Jim nothing to do, and were on foot. She thought of how the two of them had _ toured every church, library and hotel within walking distance. She remembered taking off her shoes, handing them to Jim and running down the escalator that only ran up. She laughed as she remembered his bewildered smile that had then turned trolled laughter. to uncon- MARY BUSH +3 lue-tinted Change | -eoks in fogless A\ir A\n sidewalk, the a crack she started to fall forward, child: sky, Sun, The piercing frozen sky. | caw aris ice. circle miles from town. my lungs. My nostrils sting fog, bay . My stomach throbs, and heat spreads from my head My catch on drift. the | eaves stream which buoys black-speckled chunks of ice. in the to in a across from smell of coolness. Muddy road numbs feet. | move to shore; the circle moves with me. At edge of bay split ice, slipped onto shore, floating tried by frozen crackles sinaton fog-clouds cha lk-avenn | stand ets, Stumbling as tee To and shape PDecomes A lone maple leaf dropped as she pulled her hands from her coat pockseeds. streamers warm throat my body. begins echoxlike ring, | sing to rasp. piano but caught herself. She suddenly ran (17) to fog The note walls. end held of long. song