Autumn

The sun was slow to come up, sluggish and distracted, as she moved away to cast her face on the other side of the planet, while winters bony fingers tightened on the scruff of New York.

I was wondering what kind of day it would be when I woke up, squinted at the clock, and tried to get my lenses in with the lights off, because the idea of putting on artificial lights that early, just seemed daunting.

Incidentally, lenses are quite invisible in the dark. Eventually I managed to figure out what I was doing, more by sheer instinct then anything else. The only thing worse then not seeing a lens, is trying to put lenses in with a band aid on ones finger.

Bed looked so warm and inviting. I got back in for another five cozy minutes, before Rikal barreled in looking for the mirror to check out her latest ensemble. Note to self -buy a full length mirror ASAP for the soon to be teenager, and put it in HER room-. Adina didn't care much, her uniform was jeans and tee. I just wanted them to be warm enough and reminded them to take sweatshirts.

By then, it was past time to get up and I knew I had better 'maak gou gou asseblief'.

(If I remember my Afrikaans correctly, that means to make haste -please.)

Better yet, to borrow a quote from "My fair Lady", like the good horse Dover, I needed to "move my blooming arse!"

Still, I got the girls off to school with time to spare, then ran back and got Dovi to his school.

As I ran, the faces of the people I passed flashed by, but I still got the sense of wary morning eyes and wet hair from brisk showers. Most had arms folded protectively over work clothing, holding coats closed, bracing against the cold.

Summer was fading fast, autumn had arrived by her bedside to claim her inheritance. The wind had a eyebrow-raising bite to it, like unexpected sarcasm in a eulogy.

It blustered suddenly, creeping in between buttons and down necks in gusts.

As the day wore on, it did not warm up too much. I went to pick up the kids. Dovi first, then the girls.

An old woman was gentling the sidewalk with her broom. I wondered if she spent all year waiting for fall so she could sweep up the leaves twice a day, like a devotional to the harvest Gods.

There was this sense of fall, of tired, mellow leaves slowly turning the trees into collective Rastafarians, holding onto their red, green and gold hats, their branches like heavy dreadlocks waving in the tugging, mischievous breezes.

On the ground were "helicopters', those leaves shaped like boomerangs that when they are thrown, act like propellers and spin. I showed the girls and Dovi how they worked. I remember being filled with wonder at their perfection. I still am full of wonder actually.

Like I had been before them, they were fascinated.

The wind caught them up, making them spin longer and further. Delighted, Dovi got on the floor and collected as many as he could in his little hands.

He threw them all up, watching them twirl in tandem, A young man sat on the steps of his house. He watched the kids, perhaps remembering what it was like to do that.

He looked like he wanted to get up and join them for a moment but remembered he was all grown up.

I hope when we moved on, he picked up a few and threw them for old times sake or better yet, because they still filled him with wonder on this early autumn day.