Thoughts Drifting through Leaves

Sun up, tools down for the day, it was a good time for a walk through the oaks. A learned man might sink down with a book, but a man of little learning who needs to settle his thoughts must leave that job to nature.

He took a leak against a tree. The stream hit a gall and fountained.

The piss splashed against a white coat. It lay beside the tree, facing off against a heaped mound of leaves. Most of it was sharp and white against the browns and reds of the forest floor, but long dark tracks of dirt ran up its front and what must be red berry juice stained the cuffs.

The man zipped himself up and threw the coat over his shoulder. It seemed like just the sort that an elegant lady would wear. Had she become lost in the woods? Or seized by an aggressor? He bundled it up in his satchel and set out for the police station.