It was only ten past six when I saw her. After staring at the free-flowing tides of clouds for some time, my gaze eventually dropped to the horizon, raising the warm metal watch in my hands just in time to catch her along the outskirts of town. I doubted my eyes at first, thinking the figure was someone else. Their clothes looked stiff. Each of their legs was on show, revealing each step they took. The navy blue colour of their legs and torso told me they were wearing overalls. But it was their straw sailor hat that told me she was a woman. She sauntered along the path, out from the buildings and through the fields that gently sloped down and up, like waves of the ocean. She seemed to hasten her pace as she got closer, to the point she started running. I recognised Sophia’s face under the shade of her hat. There was a great big smile on her face as she ran up, her arms swinging nimbly back and forth with clenched fists. It occurred to me she was carrying nothing, freeing her to move however she wanted. Watching her race up the path made me realise how much vigour she commanded.
“Elisaaa!” She stopped at the gateway and called out to me, leaning forward with a hand up to her mouth as if she was stood on a bridge and I was on a boat out in the ocean. A bit silly, given we were no more than two metres apart. Though, soon after, she broke this illusion and walked out onto the grass.
I smiled, dropping down from the wall. “Evening, Sophia.”
“Oh! I say, what a proper lady you are!” she laughed, flinging the hair out of her eyes with a flick of her head. “My apologies for my imprudence!”
“Don’t.” I breathed a silent giggle. “There’s no need to.”
She took a look at me, hands on her hips. “And you’re all dressed proper as well! Won’t your dress snag on the bushes?”
I was wearing a white skirt and blouse today. They seemed simple enough to me. “There’s a path cleared out to my cottage.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really? Who clears it?”
“No one, really. Mostly by foot traffic. A few travellers do come through en route to town.”
“Ah. From elsewhere.” She turned her head towards the woods.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And here I thought we would be trekking through some old trail in the woods.” She leaned back, hands still on her hips, and tilted forward, the toe caps of her boots lifting as she stared down at her attire.
“Sorry. I should have been more specific.”
“Nahhh, there’s no way you could have known what I was thinkin’. Equally glad to take up any opportunity to ditch the costumes.”
I nodded, a bit absently, my mind elsewhere. “I realised later that this was a bad time to invite you out to the wilderness. I reckon it’d be dark outside once you return.”
“It’ll be fine,” she promptly dismissed.
“Would it worry your husband?”
She shook her head. “No. He’s expecting me to come home after dark. No worries there.”
“And the trams don’t run after eight.”
“Oh, you fuss! I know the way back!” she said with a big smile, self-content. “I was watching.”
Her nonchalant character gave her the air she knew what she was getting into. “All right then,” I beckoned to the gateway. “This way.”
Sophia followed beside me as we crossed the breach, heading towards the woods. She did not seem to pay any heed to the broken down wall and carried on. “George is from the country as well. He wouldn’t be concerned about me walkin’ out in the dark.”
“Even in a city you don’t know of?”
She took pause. “What? Is this crime here that bad?” There was a sort of whimsy mockery to the question.
“No, I don’t think. But it is still a city; it still exists.”
She playfully scoffed. “And so do death and taxes. Can’t escape it. I wouldn’t let it bother you.”
I raised my eyebrows, but kept my gaze straight ahead. It should come as no surprise to me, yet I was still taken aback by how audacious she was with her words. She was even more brash than Jane, as incredible as that sounds. Strolling along, we were shortly in the forest, the world growing darker and darker as the curtain of wooden columns enveloped us. Shadows flicked across us, the shards of light a reminder there was still a sun somewhere above us. Each footstep kicked up a bit of dirt, grinded pebbles, or crunched leaves that managed to fall, or perhaps survived from the previous autumn.