Dating : The Circle

A flash fiction transfer

A hundred winters had gnawed with icy teeth at the great concrete ring atop the remote mountain’s broad summit and the crumbling flights of stairs on its north and south rims. No clue remained as to why it was there or what it had once supported. Grasses and shrubs now filled the circle’s interior, while the forest crept up the slopes, encroaching upon the ruin.

Ted Collins happened upon it hiking cross-country with his girlfriend Mandy Phelps. Temptation caught them, and he rushed the north steps while she bounded up the south, then they shouted hello! and echo, echo, echo! at each other before springing into the circle and charging each other, arms outstretched. They collided in a giddy embrace. He swung her about until, dizzy with spin and love, they toppled and rolled through the swaying grasses, laughing.

“Let’s stay here forever!” Mandy suggested. Mark scrambled to his feet, pulled her up, and kissed her in agreement.

The wind stirred, brushing their hair, warm, then frigid, then warm again. The sun flickered.

Mark looked to the sky. “Did the world just blink?”

Mandy looked, too. The sky shimmered orange. The leaves on the trees had become like feathers. A sheen like glass now arched over the circle, and beyond it gangling creatures with saucer eyes stared in. One bent down to read a sign fixed to the glass.

“Homo sapiens!” it cried. “A breeding pair!”

Ted and Mandy clung to each other and gaped back.