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A sentence resounded bravely in the emptiness of Winter. The wind
picked up its vibrations, threw them across the icy divide and into
Summer.
A woman on the beach in a flat graduation hat raised her head. She mouthed the words caught in the breeze, threw them towards the ocean. "I love you always!" The woman screamed. The wind shifted. Further into the Summer scorch.
A boy rolled his tongue down the length of a purple popsicle. Slowly, then faster. The grape goodness slid promptly into the boy’s mouth. He slurped when he felt the vibrations. "I love you... always?" He spit out some juice. His flip flops slapped the burning asphalt as he ran home, singing the sentence, returning it to the wind with added
flavor.
"I love you always," whispered a surprised youngster on his first date. "It’s the wind," he explained to his wide-eyed romance. She, too, felt the words whoosh past her ear, and smiled. "Love you," she echoed.
Next, the senior woman speeding to her last day of work caught the sentence’s whiff. The hot air stung her eyes and opened her tear ducts. "I love you always," she announced to her stunned colleagues. "I swear I’m not crying because it’s my last day."
Her four friends at the coffee machine heard the sentence too, and nodded in agreement. "Yes, I love you always," they said separately in a chorus.
An exhausted father of three energized toddlers opened his eyes when the sentence buzzed through the window. His children had made a skyscraper from plastic cups. A foaming sea from shaving cream. He moved towards them and adjusted the tilting tower. "I love you always." Tickled each child.
The three toddlers giggled and flailed their arms. The tender skyscraper toppled onto the carpet and its pencil spire plunged into the fragrance-free sea.
"I love you always," sang an older mother to her recently born child. She tucked a plush blanket closer to the sleeping girl and dimmed the baseball-shaped light. She smiled and started a song about the twinkling distant star. "One day, I’ll tell you all about stars, the way they really are," she whispered to the girl. "Maybe you’ll travel near one. Wouldn’t that be marvelous?" The baby smacked her lips in agreement.
The wind carried the words all through the Summer city, gaining energy with each sentence repeated on the ground...
...In the Winter domain, a cruel icy blast hit the cheeks of a woman in puffy clothing. She cupped her hands around the nose, breathing warmth into her face. "I love you always," she breathed in and out, opened her palms to let the sentence fly.
Over the divide. Past the ice. Through the Summer side’s scorch.
The icy blasts shot mercilessly back at her, slapping the sentence into her face. She sent another warm message to the wind. Tiny in the Winter, fat and powerful in the populated Summer.
Scrunched up cats shone their eyes at the cold woman through their windows. Winter people slept after hours of shoveling snow and generating heat.
The woman felt the sting of frost finally creep through her layers of
protective clothing. "Ouch," she said and shut her mouth in horror, lest the Summer recipient heard her pain. The tiny whiff disappeared in the current of the sentence, roaring now over the sweating city.
Some Summer citizens awakened at the sentence’s boom with frustration and mocked the message. "I love you always." Others let the invigorating energy flow on, yelled the words back onto the street.
I love you always...
On a Summer playground after dawn, a girl on her first day of pre-school slid right into the strongest gust. "I love you always." She felt the wind pass through her body and shivered at its wintery undertones.
"Sister!" She yelled back, louder than any who had heard the message. "Sister! Sister!" The girl triumphed, riding on the wind’s loving wave. "I love you too!" she shrieked the other way.
The potent air mass shifted, whirled in a miniature tornado, and reversed its course.
Through doors and windows and hearts. Past shimmering ponds where it rolled tiny waves. Parks where it rid the trees of dead leaves. Rooms and streets where Summer people laughed.
At last, it crashed into the frozen divide. Shook its foundation. Made loose ice cubes tumble into the Summer and Winter. Melted slow strings of water down the icy side.
The woman in Winter felt the rumble in her heart, caught the first melted water drop with her bare hand. Wiped a salty teardrop from her face. Laughed.
Lazy Winter cats continued to stare. Winter humans smiled and muttered the phrase in their sleep.
"I love you," sang the winds of Winter and Summer, relaying the message to all who dared to listen and repeat. Sent by the girl and woman across the great divide.
"I love you" resounded bravely in both worlds.
Yuliya Klochan