Where everything is calm...

...what is familiar begins to feel slightly off.

Nothing had changed — not the place, not the light. I stood there, watching the branches, until I no longer saw just a tree. The longer I looked, the less certain I became that everything here was as it should be. In the end, nothing happened — except a quiet unease taking hold somewhere inside.

I told myself: it’s just a tree. But I didn’t believe it.

Pushkin, Russia.
September, 2020.
...