I caught a glimpse of Lady Autumn this morning, passing through a doorway. The claret hem of her skirt barely brushed the floor, leaving behind pale yellow winter squash, deep orange pumpkins, tied herbs, green brussel sprout stalks, and sweet potatoes rattling across the floor, as she strides forward in search of the Mistress of Summer. I sneak behind into the forest, chasing after her. Of all the Ladies, she is my favorite. I want to hear her farewell song to the Mistress, but I can only catch the barest of glimpses of auburn hair tumbling down her back. Lady Autumn's skirt is changing color now, to golden yellow. She has reclaimed her territory, it is now her turn to watch the world spin and take care of the days and nights. I watch her pour a glass of something rich and sumptuous from the sideboard that seems to sprout from a tree, and as she raises her glass, she smiles, maybe at me?
It's raining now but she doesn't seem to care. Her laughter is carried on the wind, and as she opens her arms and spins in her now forest green dress, she seems to be lifted up into the rain and then gently lowered onto a bed generously thick with comforters and down pillows. She turns her white face toward me, oblivious of the rain dotting her face and clothing.
"Surround yourself with beautiful thing, my dear, useful things, the things you love," she says although her mouth doesn't move. "The winter is coming and you will have need of them."
I sat straight up in bed, on that cusp of just asleep and fully awake, feeling as if I'd lost something tangible. Rolling my hands around my bed, I felt something odd. I wrapped my hand around it. Pulling the object to me, I was most surprised to find a crystal wine glass with a drop of red at the bottom and one crimson colored maple leaf stuck to the inside of the glass.
A gift left for me from the Lady? Perhaps.
Or maybe it was just a lovely dream.
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