The Walk
by
Stacy Sorrells
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2010 Stacy Sorrells
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The Walk
I pulled on my walking shoes, pushed on my sunglasses, shoved in my ear-buds, turned up MP3 player and headed outside. I walked down the main road, past the neighborhood shopping centers; my destination was the county trail that ran through my suburb. On my way I kept my head down as I bobbed along to my favorite music. A.F.I songs from “DecemberUnderground” and “Crash Love” of course, mixed in were song from The Arctic Monkeys albums, “Favourite Worst Nightmare” and “Humbug”, I walked up the overpass and then under it onto, the gravel side of the trail.
It was nice out, only a little bit breezy. I was passed by a few mountain bikers on the trail, and when I looked across the creek at the paved side of the trail, I saw a family walking. There was also an elderly couple meandering along with their dog. I kept on going, glancing at the shrubbery, pausing only to let a squirrel or lizard dash by. And with the music I had playing how could I stop? When A.F.I came on, I thought about my, “CL” characters. When Arctic Monkeys came into que, my mind wandered off to another WIP. After about forty minutes I reached my destination, the curve that touched the main road. I turned around and headed back home….that’s when it happened.
My MP3 player died, oh hell. NO! Forty minutes from home with nothing but the sound of…Ugh! I pressed and repressed, till even the empty battery display stopped flashing. Ugh! After nearly breaking into tears I calmed myself down and came to a realization that: this was the situation as it was, the way fate had handed it to me and I would somehow have to get through it. So what did I do? I got inspired.
I yanked out my ear-buds and shoved them into my pocket. Still walking, I began listening to the sounds that I had missed while in my musical trance. The crunching sound that my sneakers made each time my feet smashed into the gravel, the chatter and laughter coming from the family on the paved side. The wind as it whistled past my ears, the zzzzrrrrrr of the mountain bike that glided by, “on your left” the biker had shouted.
The infernal and constant hum off the city in the distance which I concluded was caused by moving vehicles. The constant rumbling of thousands of engines all around the city, the steady wooshing of them breaking through the wind, these sounds were occasionally ribbon-ed with the distant train whistle or police siren and sprinkled lightly with the sounds I enjoyed most; Nature.
The sounds I longed for were hardest to hear: birds suddenly taking off or landing, the unexplainable occasional crack and chirp of nature. The ssshhhing sound the tree leaves made when the wind blew through them into frenzy. And all of the perfectly blended smells; the airy smell, the woodsy smell, the sweet flowery smell, and the watery smell of creek.
As, I approached my home, the sounds of nature became inaudible. I had become up close and personal with the sounds of the city. Instead of the constant blended hum of motors, I endured being able to separate one engine from another, the roar when they took off, the sound of them slowing to a stop. I could hear the man in the Honda place his order at the drive through coffee shop. The sounds of birds were overpowered by yelling school kids out for the summer. The smells of exhaust filled the air, but briefly I could smell someone’s dinner grilling on a barbeque. I heard a teenager across the street talking loudly into her cell phone, making threats. I could not hear my own steps, but I could hear the tire crunch as it pulled into the driveway, the TV blaring from inside that home. Finally there was my foot slapping down on my front porch, my key clicking into the lock, the cliiiching of me turning the handle the rrrrrccccchhh of me opening the door.
Copyright © 2010 by Stacy Sorrells