flashback

"there's no mist here" he says, turning to look you in the eye
you are walking down a utility road in the middle of state park in Southern Ohio. looking ahead of you, there are two figures in the distance, seemingly flirting. Their body language speaks of a common desire to be spirited away by their mutual desire, but you are only irritated.
"yeah, i guess it's clearing up," you say, trying to build the conversation. Earlier, you insulted his girlfriend, not knowing he was napping just inside, hearing you through the window on the porch. It had been early afternoon, your first day here, your first day adjusting to being somewhere else after having just left your vacation at home, in your parents' house. Looking up, you wish the night were not quite so thick, although the moon shatters the night with a glow. The world feels hungry to you, like life is waiting around the next curve in the road to spirit you away as well.
"then again, maybe not," he says, your tall friend, the man with a beard to cover his otherwise ugly face. You have never seen his face without facial hair, never met him before a few years ago. He is your sister's friend but he feels like your own older brother, like the kind, guiding knowledge you never knew. In the distance, the mist has consumed your companions, and you are mildly pleased. Remembering to be kind, to take all things as motion, as wind in the trees, you let that pleasure go.
"So where are you living now?" you ask, ready just to be in this moment, watching the moon lay down the trees and all the darkness to sleep, quilting you as well into a constellation of moments.