I walked back to my car. The gravel path seemed longer than before. The forest seemed quieter. And for the rest of the day, I kept glancing at my reflection in windows, checking to see if the sky behind my eyes had changed.
I stared at the left pole first. It was smooth, cool-looking, with a single hairline scratch running up its side like a vein. The right pole was identical, except for a faint smear of rust near its base. I looked at the hole. Nothing. Dirt, maybe roots. The air smelled of wet moss and my own boredom. 2poles 1hole
It had. It was the bruised purple one.
The brochure didn't mention any of that. I walked back to my car
Then I shifted my weight, and the light changed. A cloud moved. The sun slid through the trees at a different angle, and suddenly the two poles cast shadows that touched across the hole. The shadows didn't just meet—they interlocked , like fingers lacing. And the hole, which had been empty, now held a reflection of the sky. Not the sky above, but a different sky: bruised purple, with a moon I didn't recognize. And for the rest of the day, I
I haven't told my girlfriend. She already knows.
The brochure called it Two Poles, One Hole —a minimalist art installation tucked at the end of a gravel path in a forest no one remembered to name. I went because my girlfriend said it changed her, and because I had nothing better to do on a Tuesday.