...

When the computer screen glow became too much in the grim gallery office she went out in the hot sun. She was overdressed for the weather in a robin's egg blue cardigan, black shirt, a found scarf and jeans. She always wears jeans, but that is besides the point. She had really been wanting it to rain for days, maybe even months now. And it had rained quite a bit, but not enough for her. The rain cleared her mind and propelled her forward into the future cooler days. She was dreaming already of the fall, when things would be perfect. For the past few years she had put a lot of pressure on the fall and winter as an imaginary point when things would become clear and she would be able to assume that personality and life she lived in her head. The Fall keeps rolling by, but she never gives up hope.

Anyway, back to the sunshine. The heat hits her like a wall of fire, she is self conscious now in her wishful sweater and scarf but she pretends not to sweat or be bothered. She walks down the street to the old homestead overlooking an expansive valley. There are three pear trees here filled with fruit, not yet ripe but she will be keeping an eye on them. One of the pears falls off in her hand- she takes it back to the studio as a souvenir.

She takes photographs and she imagines the past, she can see herself as a child making castles out of cardboard boxes on the lawn next door; drawing and painting and making art in the summer. She walks the land, looks into the remaining cellar of the old house, now filling in with grass, rocks, and pieces of the old foundation. Just a pit in the ground.

It is time to leave now. As she walks away, she sees the ghosts in the window and she keeps waiting for the rain.