She twirls her fingers through the tiny flakes, watches them follow the breeze her hand makes. How easily they can be swept away, the ice crystals boldly collecting to her hand, without knowing what they were leaving behind. Like the empty spot in her heart that he took each time he left. She rolls his words around in her head, how they have less meaning each time he says them. Her eyes burn and she looks away, as the mountains that she's seen from the top, as they become a blur, up at the moon that he promised to catch for her, all the patches of stormy sky that never burst out on his brush. The tears stream down her face and land on the still ringing snow.

A crunch of feet startles her and she whirls around to meet his brown eyes, his tired eyes that seem to soften as he sees her tear-stained face. He raises her face to meet his, and catches a stray tear with his thumb. “I—I’m sorry” he whispers and gathers her in his arms as she trembles. Her body racks with sobs, and something overwhelming swells inside him. A lone tear weaves a wary path down his face to fall softly on her hair. Suddenly, but as if he knew it all along, he knows the feeling. He swallows.

“I love you” he whispers. He holds her tight as he shakes.

“I love you too”

Suddenly she gasps and loosens her grip. “Look”! He turns to face the tomato-red sun, drawing back in a tired darkling sky. It bleeds with blue into green, yellow, and red, purple, blue. She stands in awe, silently.

Then slowly, he begins to sing. His voice crackling at first, but flowing into a slow, sweeping tune. A wave of violins and embraces, of mountain tops and riversides, a thrumming of chords that fills the air and sweetens it, fills her ears and her heart, and saddens her too.

Mi mancherai se te ne vai

Mi mancherai la tua serenità

Le tue parole come canzoni al vento

E l’amore che ora porti via

Mi mancherai se te ne vai

Ora e per sempre

Non so come vivrei

E l’allegria, amica mia

Va via con te

Mi mancherai, mi mancherai

Perché vai via?

Perché l’amore in te sè spento?

Perché, perché?

Non cambierà niente lo so

E dentro sento te

I will miss you if you go

I will miss your serenity

Your words like songs to the wind

And the love that you take away with you

I will miss you if you go

Now and forever

I don’t know how I'd live

And my friend Happiness

Will go with you

I will miss you, I will miss you

Why are you going away?

Why has the love in you died?

Why, why?

Nothing will change, I know

And inside I feel you

She stood, entranced, by the beauty of his voice.