Ginkgo Leaves the Wind Took

The water bottle forgotten on the bench glinted in the morning sun. One of them stopped in front of it again, and the other had already picked it up and sat down first in that same spot. Before the streetlights came on, the evening wind whirled up a handful of ginkgo leaves. The person on the bench watched with folded hands. They brushed off their hands and rose to walk on, and the wind was taking the leaves away again. The two pairs of footsteps moved along too, in the direction the wind was taking the leaves. Behind them, another handful of ginkgo leaves must have fallen and piled up. As the night deepened the wind fell asleep too, and the leaves lay piled beneath the streetlight, holding only their own shadows.