Temple of Memory
By Elaine

A gentle breeze blew across the soil, sighing as if to say that things would change.

The lone figure walked along the barren path. The village was behind him now, at least half a mile distant, and the low drone of the main road traffic had disappeared, replaced with the sound of nature. In the small woodland to his right, he could hear birdsong over the gentle sound of the wind blowing through the branches.

It was nearly Winter now, Summer was just a distant memory. The man was used to memories. They haunted him, mocked him with promises of a past that would never be seen again, and a future that never was. Memories were, in fact, the reason the man was here today, a path through the fields in the English countryside, many miles from his home.

The sun was getting low in the sky, and was slowly slipping behind the rolling hills, painting the sky with soft pinks, oranges and reds. Long shadows stretched across the fields, now barren after the harvesting period. The man kept walking, along the barely visible path by the woodland, heading for a temple only he knew about. A temple that no-one else could see, a temple of memory.

Laughing with joy, she camr running through the grass. The man turned, and saw nothing, only the fields with their emptiness. He sighed, and kept walking.

His clothes were old, not the new and smart suits he wore to work, but a simple black cardigan and trousers that looked like they had not been worn in ten years. They hadn't. The reason for this was, once again, memory. The suit belonged to the present, the glowing rush of 'now' that seemed so important, yet just reminded him of the future, and promised him the past. He had no place in the present. At least not here, in his sacred temple of memory.

'Sitting here, with you, this place is heaven'. He heard the words in his head so clearly it were as if they had been said by someone standing behind him, but he kept walking. He would not be duped by another mirage of his mind. Her words were like the sound of running water to a man dying of thirst, yet resounded as sweetly as a nightingale's song, and as harmoniously as a great bell in some cathedral devoted soley to her. Like the temple was.

The man stopped for a moment, thinking, and then turned off the path and walked across the barren soil of the field. He probarbly didn't have permission to be there. He didn't care. It may be some farmers field, but it was his temple. The cold, dark soil felt like a quagmire to the man, dragging him down, sucking him into the empty embrace of nothing. The soil did indeed appear that way, as the sun had now disappeared behind the hills on the opposite side of the valley.

He looked out over the valley. A new expressway ran along the other side, too far away to be heard, but the distant stream of light from the speeding cars was clear enough. The first few buildings of a city were visible to his right, further down the valley. It wasn't his valley. His valley was bright, full of beauty and wonder. Quiet, natural, eternal.

'I want to stay with you forever' she said, gazing deeply into his eyes. He gazed back, into empty air.
'When we're older, let's come back here. Maybe we can live here, in that cute little house by the stream!'. The house had long since been demolished, replaced by new offices, full of smart men and women doing pointless things every day of the year.
'I love you'.

The man shouted out across the valley 'I love you too!'. They were lost in the wind, just as he expected them to be. In this temple, little was like the usual.

A phone rang. The man saw himself answer it, and a beautiful voice replied. 'I'm running a little late I'm afraid, but I shall be there by six.'
'I want to see you now!' the man replied
'I know, I want to see you too. But one and half hours isn't forever, I shall be with you soon again. Remember, we're always together in our hearts!'
'I know you're in mine. Take care, and I shall be with you soon enough!'.
But she had already hung up.

The man looked away from the fading phone, and stared hard at the expressway, at the lights of the traffic slowly sliding along the dark valley.

Her car had been hit by a truck three miles from his house. She had died instantly.

'I want to see you now!' the man said, his words weak and desperate.

'We're always together in our hearts' came the reply.

The man smiled, and then suddenly turned, tears running down his cheek. As he turned, the ground suddenly erupted with life, flowers growing all around, the cold dark earth becoming soft green grass. Over the grass two figures came running. The man saw himself, twelve years ago, and her. She looked as beautiful as she always had done, like an angel from some Christian fairytale, her long golden hair blowing behind her like the shimmering tail of a comet moving across the night sky. The couple stopped running, gazing through the man across the valley he knew was no longer there. The sun shone from directly above, making her yellow summer dress shine brighter then any star. The couple sat down, and suddenly the ground became dark and barren again. Yet she still sat there, and now turned to gaze at the man.

'I know you are in my heart, forever and always' he said, smiling at her.

She smiled back, beckoned him to come and sit with her and as he did so, excliamed 'It's been a long ninety minutes'.

He threw his arms around her, and the two were soon in a strong embrace, as the darkness of night became complete.

The next morning, the farmer found his body, lying in the dirt in the middle of one of his fields. Police said it was a heart attack. Yet even years later, when the valley had become a large housing estate, and the field now borded back gardens, the farmer noticed that the patch of ground he had been found on never changed. Two flowers amongst the dirt of the urban fringe, forever beautiful.

A gentle breeze blew amongst those flowers, sighing as if to say that some things would last forever...