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Nature Girl Listen to Kirsty read “Nature Girl”
I had cleared the whole day for this. No deadlines, no paperwork, no email or phone or laptop. It was just me and the sun and an empty park. No one came to this park because it was small and usually cooled by shade, but I had discovered a quiet patch under an apple tree which always caught the late-afternoon sun. The day smelled of cut grass and sun block. I threw my bag down onto the grass and spread out my blanket, sliding off my shoes so I could feel the ground with my feet. I stretched my arms out, enjoying the feel of the cool strands between my toes and the hot sun on my shoulders. After smoothing the bumps and wrinkles from the blanket, I spread myself out below the sky. I could hear the distant murmur of traffic, the buzz of a bee, a dog barking intermittently. The sun was warm on my face, painting the insides of my eyelids with red swirls. I let myself sink into the yielding grass, into that blur between sleeping and waking. The dog was still barking, the sun was still burning my nose, and the grass was still tickling my feet; but I knew something had changed. When I opened my eyes, she was lying beside me. She was at once sky-bright and night-dark. Her skin was the pale green of light-blanched moss. Her nipples were daisies on the soft hills of her breasts. Her hair shifted and floated around her head like clouds. When I reached up to run my fingers through it, my hands came away wet with condensation. She slid her body onto mine, her misty hair cool on my cheek. Her kisses were as hard as just-bloomed roses, as weak as the trunk of an oak, as mysterious as a cherry stone.
By the time I got home my partner was back from work, opening and closing cupboards in the kitchen. ‘What’s for dinner? How was your day? Did you remember to post that letter for me?’ ‘I—’ The phone rang. When I answered it, the receiver crushed something behind my ear. I watched the daisy fall to the floor and forgot to speak.
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