It's October again.
The shiuli flowers would bloom in the quiet hours, scatter themselves beneath the trees and fill the air with that familiar fragrance. She would breathe it in and rejoice, as she always did.
She would call out for Dan, wondering where he had gone.
And he would return, just as he always did, his hands full of fallen shiuli, asking her why she had called for him.
But she would be gone again.
Like the shiuli, she would disappear with the passing of the season, leaving behind only her fragrance and a question he would never get an answer to.
Perhaps that was the cruelest thing about some people. They return just long enough to remind you of what you have lost and then disappear before you can ask them to stay.