BACK TO THE BEGINNING — Laughter among the leaves

As evening fell, she took the path to Ernesto.

She saw him from a distance and stopped. The mango tree stood in the same place. His canopy spread over the grass, and one branch dipped at an angle Skyblue would have recognized among all the branches in the universe.

She had imagined this reunion so many times. Now she could not remember any of the things she had planned to say.

She went up to him and rested her paws on his trunk.

“Ernesto.”

The leaves stirred.

“Feliz,” she whispered next.

She felt the laughter before she heard it. The tree leaned just a little, enough to wrap a branch around her.

Skyblue closed her eyes and stayed there. She knew the bark, the scent of the leaves, the steady strength that had held her tired body so many times. She did not need to leave any of those things behind to feel the presence of the one she had just embraced on the Blue Planet.

“I have so much to tell you,” she said.

“I know.”

She lifted her head.

“And you have so much to tell me.”

Ernesto’s laughter rippled through his whole canopy.