Chapter 51

• The park was lively with the tender murmur of early summer. Children’s chuckling blended with the stirring of leaves within the light breeze, and some place within the distance, the ice cream truck played its recognizable jingle. The sun plunged low in the sky, portraying the skyline with streaks of pink and orange, casting a warm gleam over the lines of sprouting blooms.
• Matthew and Alexis strolled side by side, the sound of their strides mixing with the rock way underneath them. They had walked this way endless times before, but this evening, there was something different within the air, something inferred.
• Matthew looked at Alexis, noticing the way her hair caught the blurring daylight, turning the strands into a cascade of gold. Her eyes were settled ahead, but her contemplations were clearly somewhere else, some place far off and overwhelming. They had been talking about nothing and everything for the past hour, their airion floating from work inconveniences to irregular recollections of school days, but there was an undercurrent that not one or the other of them challenged to recognize.