The silhouette of the tree was cascading on the wall again. It’s grey leaves reached upon the coffee pot on the side table in the morning, Laura noted. The same leaves flickers upon her face before dawn. She knew the exact time of day simply by these shadows. When the morning bus drives by the window it’s reflections scatter the room in a flurry of lights, both flashes of people lost in their commute and the glare of the morning sun against the grey wall, but nothing much else divides the white of her table to the black of her coffee mug.

Laura sets off to work, raising her hand to flag her friend, Claire, down in the street. Both have a short walk that leads the same way to their offices, meaning it was ritual to meet and share every detail of their mornings and equally the end of their days.

“You got a new watch?” Claire asks as she points to Laura’s wrist.

“Yeah, it’s got a clearer display than the other one I had.”

“So, you threw the other away?”

“No, it’s on my counter. I still can’t throw it away”

Claire smiles slightly, “That makes sense.”

Laura softly smiles and looks at the blocky numbers ticking away on her wrist. “We’ll be late.”

Ten AM soon turned to PM and Laura and Claire begin meandering up the street back home, chuckling at the office gossip of the day with arms locked together to beat the evening chill.

Letting out a forceful sigh into the air Claire’s warm breathe fades into the night sky.

“Autumn is around the corner.”

“And short daylight hours” Laura replies while looking at the stars. “I guess that’s not a bad thing.”

Claire catches Laura’s face and softly jolts her. “It’s pretty isn’t it?”

“Hmm, it is.” The bright twinkle of the stars in the dark night was indeed pretty, but still only black and white.

Coat and bag hooked up by the front door, Laura sets her watch down on the kitchen counter by a older watch with clock arms ticking softy on it’s face. She picks it up instinctively for a closer look. The shape of a leaf floats down the left side while two smaller ones curve the right-side. The silhouette of a tree etched across the face. A falling shadow flashes across her hand. She turns to the window to see the tree outside that had stood since she moved in many years ago and long prior. It was magestic in size with a broad dark trunk and branches full of leaves. Walking towards it, she watches a leaf slowly fall and join the few that had begun to cover the pavement. “I guess seeing your leaves fall is the only way I’ll know it’s autumn.”

A flurry of lights flicker around the room waking Laura from her sleep. With a grumble she peers towards the window to see the morning bus passing. She sighs and pulls herself out of bed to prepare her morning coffee. A yawn followed closely by another and the coffee was done. Grabbing her black mug, she pours the dark brew and takes a sip. As she takes her second sip, she reachs behind for her watch. Clasp closed, she turns her wrist to see the ticking clock arms. “Ah, wrong one.”

Reaching round for the clasp once more, briefly she freezes. A shadow sweeped across her hand… but it glimmered. No. This wasn’t a shadow. The shape appeared again. A leaf? but it had a glow. It’s edges warm. Closing her eyes, she questioned this thought, ‘How do I know it looks warm?’

Nothing had felt warm unless through touch. A warm hand. Being wrapped up in a warm coat. The warm sip of this coffee. But right now, the feeling on her skin was cool. Because it’s Autumn, she thought.

“Autumn?”

As soon as she said it out loud her eyes widened and in front of her, cascading on the wall, was the silhoutette of a tree that glowed. it’s edges flickering, cutting the greys, blacks and white with fire. She watched it dancing in and out of bright and dark, burning and cooling amongst the grey. Reaching her hand out, she began to be danced upon by the same fire. It felt warm, but she still the felt cold on her wrist. Raising it to her face, the strap of the watch faced her. The glow of the tree shone in the metal. A wave of soft light started chasing along it’s face as she turned her wrist, when suddenly it was no longer just the light that caught her eye. The shape of a leaf. Three. One large with two smaller ones curved to the right. All a vivid orange and shimmering, like they might when they fall. “Is… is this what it looks like?” Laura grasped her wrist and pulled the watch closer, eyes fixed on the jewelled orange. Then realisation hit her. The tree.

She turned to the window. It’s dark broad trunk still the same. The ink-blank branches still cutting through the grey sky… but at the end of every one sprouted a golden orange leaf, each proudly strecth out in the sun. A brisk gust of wind blew by and some began to fall. Shimmer and swaying in the light all the way to the ground, sitting softly on the the sea of gold trailing around the tree’s obsidian base.

The brightest glow of colour she had ever seen over-whelmed her. The colour washed everywhere the more she looked. Her eyes began to well with tears. “It’s so warm.”