Moonlit

The boy and his friend who was not his girlfriend walked hand in hand down the dark street. Their breath intermingled as they laughed and chatted. They were heading for nowhere in particular but they were going there quickly. She spotted a dark footpath and he dived into it before she could say another word. Twisty, steep and brambly, it promised surprises. They tumbled out of the other side into a moonlit field. Stumbling over tufts of grass they came to a sudden halt at the sight of a tree or a man or a something else in front of them. They whispered and giggled and then he ran waving his arms at the figure and shouting. The tree or the man or the something else whinnied and then cantered away.

The couple who weren’t a couple laughed at themselves and then walked on, admiring the bright full moon. They feasted on blackberries and moon blushed apples and stood still, more together than they ever should have been. A gentle whoosh of hot air on their backs brought them back to reality and they turned to face the whoosh. Finding themselves surrounded by twenty or thirty or forty horses they stared and held their breath.

Walking home later, he sighed and he shrugged as the world became more normal.

Walking home later, she sighed and she smiled and she swore she would never forget her midnight feast.