July had been blown out like a candle by a biting wind that ushered in a leaden August sky. It had taken with it the final leaves from the trees, flung around like confetti which slowly disintegrated into the solid earth. It was now that the sky began to fall, flakes of white dust settling on the hard ground until bare brown became the golden white of a coral beach.
That was the first winter that I remember, chilled and desolate amongst the months of warmth that had filled my life before that time. My sunflaked skin covered in sweltering wrappings, I trudged to and from school, never staying but turning around to be acompanied home once more. It would be several years until I could stay in the comfort of that place, and then it too would become as desolate and empty as the hours that had gone before.
