I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL

What a guy
What a fool am I
To think my breaking heart
Could kid the moon

As the fire lookout scanned the wilderness for signs of smoke or fire, he could feel his bloodshot eyes getting tired. Whenever he felt his eyelids getting heavy like this, he would think about his lost love to wake him up. He didn't like to resort to her memory to do so, but it was the only thing that would keep him alert and focused on detecting any threats to the surrounding panoramic habitat which was now his full time profession.

He had come to see his external environment as a metaphor for his internal state of mind. For the most part, placid and unmoving, at others wild and untamed.

Elijah Cooper was what was known as a "freak on a peak" and though he sort of resented the term, he'd always known he was a bit odd. An example of this was when a close friend told him he needed to find perspective after having his heart broken by the love of his life, never in his wildest imagination expecting Elijah to take up residency in a 15ft by 15ft cabin atop a remote tower.

"Man. You took my advice too literally!"

"Well, I thought it was good advice, so yeah, I took it."

Up on the mountain, Elijah would not only watch for fires and tempests, but also keep a daily journal of observations recording minute changes in cloud and canopy. So attuned had he become with regards to the weather that he found he could sense a storm on the way long before any visible dislay of it appeared before him.

He'd wished he had been the same with her, anticipating her volatile changes in mood and affection. Maybe then he might have been able to better salvage their relationship before it came to an abrupt end.

Far away from everyone and everything, Elijah felt sort of free in a way he never did back home where he felt often imprisoned by his memories of Eloise everywhere he went. He would see flashback memories of their time spent together on every street corner, in his local diner and ice rink as well as the drive-in cinema which he had sadly resorted to going to alone.

"There's nothing lonelier in this world than watching a movie on your own at a drive-in cinema," he told his understanding friend and consigiliere Joe.

But even out here, far away from his past, she would find a way to return to him. It might be in the soft summer breeze that would sweep across him as he stood on the catwalk, or the soft scented rain that dripped from leaves when he was out on one of his daily hikes.

But she always found a way back to him, like a slow leak through a loose roof tile.

It was only when the promise of a storm came that he was truly able to forget her, blanking her out of his mind completely. That moment when the water in his glass would tremor and the wind picked up, eventually battering the panes all around him in his sky top dwelling.

At these times, he could only think of the almighty power of Mother Nature and even in the chaos of what she threw at him, he was far happier to withstand her fury than the devastating and cutting remarks of his ex that last time he saw her.

"You just want love to be like a movie, without any of the reality that goes along with it," she'd said raising her voice so people passing them in the street could hear. "Well it's impossible! No such thing exists!"

Once the storm had abated, he would often stretch out under the stars on the balcony deck and rest for an hour or two, enjoying the serenity after yet another of what seemed a near death experience, his mind alive with racing thoughts.

As he looked up at the clear night sky, he wondered where she was right now. Unlike his 360% fire finding compass, he could not so easily track her like he could with the wild fires.

But every now and then when he saw distant smoke on the horizon, he wondered if she was sending signals to alert him so he'd finally come back to her.

But then, he'd realise in a state of disquiet that he was just hallucinating.

"The mind plays funny tricks on a broken hearted soul," Joe told his dear friend the last time they'd caught up over a beer.

It was true. A certain paranoia develops in solitude which is hard to escape. Perhaps it would have been just the same regardless of whether they'd broken up, but it certainly didn't help.

As much as Elijah had hoped he was getting on without her, he knew deep down the madness of losing Eloise had only just begun.

If only she was with him, he thought, up here in the tower. Perhaps then, away from friends, family and small town life, they would finally get to know each other better in a way they never did before.

She could hear the sound of the telephone ringing from out in the garden as she hung up her freshly laundered linen on the washing line.

Instinctively she sensed it was him, and though part of her wanted to take the call, she knew if she did, the storm clouds would descend once more and all hell would break loose.

As the wind blew her freshly washed bed sheets up in the air like dancing ghosts, she finally felt free of him.

The random calls would eventually stop and once they did, she probably would never think about him ever again.