Wander On

A man in a baseball cap and light blue Levi’s walks through the midwestern forest in his backyard. He keeps his hand out as he walks, making sure to graze the darkened trees with the tips of his fingers. The grass has grown high, and so he takes large steps at a haphazard pace with no destination in mind.

He had cooked a steak earlier that night, nothing too fancy, nothing fancy at all actually. His Dad taught him how to make the perfect steak for seven dollars or less, so he went to the store that day with fifteen out of habit. He forgot about taxes.

As he continues to walk through the woods, fireflies slowly creep out. The man stops and watches as they cross the now illuminated path in front of him like businessmen in the city on their way to work. There is no chaotic sound of traffic, just the ambient noise of crickets chirping and owls cooing in the distance. It helps the man hear his own thoughts loud and clear.

Quickly he returns to his walk, now moving quicker, with wide eyes attempting to take in all of his surroundings at once. There was a smile beginning to creep out, when the fireflies first came, that now is nothing but a folktale. His hand is still outreached, but he now pulls at the leaves on the branches when he can, letting them fall to the ground he has already left behind.

He finally slows down as he comes to a creek. It’s small and not useful to anything except the animals that sip from it, but it's important to the man now standing in front of it. He looks down at the water as it flows West. The sound of the water begins to sooth him.

He leaps over the small creek and continues forward, but after hours have passed the thin flannel he wears no longer does a good job of fighting off the cooling temperature. The wind blowing on the back of his neck feels like a wet tongue, while he begins to feel an icy grip, that must come from death himself, wrapped around his forearms. The only thing on the man’s mind is now how cold it has gotten.

So the man in the baseball cap sits down, in the grass that’s grown too high, and ends his walk.