The window that opened

He went out through the window once, counting the paces to the fence. Eight steps it is, he remembers how many paces because he counted them on the way back as well. He only went out the window once, the day they first put him here, the big window has not been open in years. He stares out of the window everyday. When he went out there that one time he could not reach the wooden fence, there is a wire fence inside the high wooden fence. The wire fence is also very high and it has barbed wire running along the top of it, you could not climb over the wire fence and all that barbed wire to get to the wooden fence but the the wooden fence is only a few inches away from the wire fence. He wants to know what is the other side of that big high wooden fence.

There are holes in the big high wooden fence, cracks that he could see through, he remembers from that one look he had a long time ago. He could not see anything beyond the trees. He can see the trees from his chair, in his room behind the window, the one that opened so long ago, the one you can walk through. He looks at the trees every day, they sway in the wind. The leaves grow, change colour and fall to the ground. He cannot remember how many times the leaves have grown, changed colour and then fallen to the ground. He prefers the trees when the leaves are nice and new and green.

He can see the sky through the trees, he sits and looks at the sky through the trees every day after he has looked at the trees with their leaves for long enough. The sky is a different colour almost every day. He has no preference for the colour of the sky, he just notices the changes without emotion.

There are birds in the trees, he looks for the birds after he has looked at the sky through the trees for long enough. They, those that put him in the room with the chair in front the window that opened once, gave him a book with pictures of birds in once. The pictures of the birds also had the names of the birds alongside the pictures. He knows that names of the birds he sees every day, they are called pigeon, sparrow, blackbird, starling, crow, blue tit and collared dove. The birds sit on the branches in the trees and on top of the high wooden fence and even the barbed wire on top of the high wire fence. He notices that the birds do not mind the barbs on the barbed wire, they do not seem to care. The birds know what is beyond the trees the other side of that high wooden fence. He sometimes wishes he was a bird then he would know what is beyond the high wooden fence too.

He sometimes see a grey squirrel walking along the high wooden fence. He does not look for it every day but he notices it if it walks along the high wooden fence when he is looking for the birds. The grey squirrel also climbs into the trees and walks along the branches. He thinks he is not sure if he wants to be a grey squirrel, they might not know what is beyond the trees behind the high wooden fence. He thinks the grey squirrel is in the trees looking for nuts. The trees are not nut trees so he wonders why the grey squirrel looks in the trees for nuts. He does not really like the grey squirrel.

When he has looked at the trees and the sky and the birds for long enough, he simply stares out of the window, sitting in the chair, waiting for the sky to go dark when he cannot see the trees with their leaves or the birds anymore. Then they come and close the blinds so that he cannot even see the window that opened once.

©2010 Trevor Litchfield