A Golden Plunge

I slipped down the apartment stairs and out into the courtyard, drawn toward a deep mound of fallen ginkgo leaves gathered against the warm stone wall. Usually, my instinct is to arrange stray stems into orderly rows. Today, however, I bent my knees, took two bounding hops, and plunged straight into the center of the drift. The crisp, fan-shaped leaves rustled like parchment, tumbling over my wings and dusting my knit hat with brilliant yellow. Wiggling my feet, I carved out a soft hollow and leaned back, letting the leaves shower around me. Sitting buried to my chest, I simply rested, without straightening a single leaf.