Novel Snippet

This is why I love November. Unexpected moments of beauty.

He held the compass out as the rain fell, cold against his skin, though he had the strange impression that it wasn't soaking into his clothing, merely hitting him and falling away, like layers peeling off an orange to reveal the tender meat within. He spun until the shaking needle pointed towards the black letters NE. Then he began walking.

Within minutes, he heard her. She was singing in an operatic vibrato, and as her voice soared over the high notes and swooped downwards, like a pure, white dove, he noticed the sky begin to clear. He knew she would be here, as suddenly and surely as one knows he will take his next breath, though he has forgotten that breathing happens all the time, without thought. Inhale follows exhale, and repeat, just as she stands there, note following breathy pause, and repeat.

He came to sit at her feet, enraptured. Her thick, brown hair hung naturally over delicate, exposed shoulders. It looked darker in contrast with her pearly skin, which captured rain drops, and pooled them in jutting collarbones. They appeared as pearls rolling across her skin, down her moving lips. Her eyes were dark green and piercing, almost otherworldy. She didn’t look at him. Instead, her eyes were glued to the unmoving horizon, where her voice projected, dancing among the stalks and into the unknown beyond of this world.

Eli inhaled shakily. He looked at her, could see her, but even as she was here and he saw her, she began to fade. Her garments - which were pure white, and hung loosely around her like limp bed sheets - were turning to smoke. They floated about her as fireflies, glinting in the approaching sun. Her voice broke up, too, into beads of sound which fluttered about him, tickled his neck and arms.