close encounter
It's Thursday night and I just walked back into my apartment, a pleasant sweat on my forehead and a familiar pounding in my feet. I work in the city and having had a fairly rural upbringing, I occasionally get tired of grey concrete walls and cold glass windows. I want to feel the ground under my bare feet and see the trees towering over me while I breathe in the cold clean air. As this is not my lot this year, I picked an apartment a little bit south of the city nestled between two condominium complexes and spread out over a tree covered hill. About an hour ago, I was decompressing after another day at the cubicle farm and decided to slough off my vegetablehood and explore the real world for a while. I traded my dress shirt for an undershirt and exposed my feet to the real world.
I walked through the apartment complex and looked up at the forest in the distance. I walked briskly down the top of the curb on the big hill. I stayed balanced and fast throughout the endeavor and I was pleasantly pleased at the coordination returning to me. I turned into the extended driveway of the neighboring condos, where I run every other day. The trees were tall and close to the long road. I felt the echo of my childhood selves through the familiar rhythm of my feet and the trees.
After far too short a time, I came into a parking lot. Cars drove a bit closely and quickly past me, and several times I moved far from their path to the row of parked cars. I thought the buildings were nice, and reviewed the condo postings to check for the one I had seen in the break room at work. That momentary diversion past, I kept walking. There were small stones under my feet, but the roughness and strangeness woke me up enough from the hierarchical illusions of life to dream for a while.
I saw myself walking down a mountain path towards some phantom waterfall. The wood stands ancient and alive all around me, and I crunch its memories under my feet. I look to my right and there is a beautiful girl who smiles at me and knows my name. I know her too, and we walk forever past the same trees and under the same sky that remote ancestors wandered when the world was an alien place. After a time, we fill our personal planet with conversation. We find our minds in harmony but disparate and independent and strong. We explore the hidden truths of the world, and eventually, when the moon takes over the sky, each other.
A cold, fat raindrop crushed me back to reality. I spun on my heels and heeded the instinct of a cold, wet animal and sought shelter. As I jogged and walked I realized how far away I was - from my dreams and my bed. As I passed a bit more quickly through the woodland condos, I bid a good evening to a fellow jogger and chuckled at reflections of myself in little children sparring with sticks. Somewhat further down the road, three guys chased (perhaps) a cat around the ground floor of one of the condos.
I was finally almost out through the long tunnel driveway of trees when I spy a few dry branches at the edge of the woods. I thought of the unused fireplace in my living room, and my inner childs curiosity led me to pick them up and feel how dry they were. I was at the big hill to my apartment complex, and I saw a startling blue and red light in the road two intersections ahead. One of my favorite authors whispered in my ear, and I listened to my worse if wiser self that he may pull the speeder over directly into my path. I quickly dropped the two fairly large branches into the underbrush.
A frighteningly short moment later, the cruiser was diagonal in the road blocking my path. A young man, maybe thirty with conservative hair and military demeanor got out and shielded himself with the drivers side door. My eyes never left his as his hand crossed to his belt in my peripheral vision.
"Were you just down there in a fight with your uncle?" he said, confrontationally.
"No, I live up in Fox Chase South. I was just taking a walk through the neighborhood." I replied through the heartbeat in my ears. I was immensely glad I had dropped the club when he was well out of sight. The world slowed down as my mind switched gears. I was defending my master's, taking the SAT, talking to a beautiful girl.
"Are you sure? Where were you?"
I told him my building and that I had no family down there and was just taking a walk. I found myself in a sudden battle of wills with someone who lives in a world of lies. He surreptitiously radioed back for a confirmation of the description of his target. I felt his eyes on my bare feet and his hand moved to the butt of his weapon. If some hermit had called me in, or if the man he was looking for happened to be wearing an all too common white undershirt and black pants, I was fucked.
"You sure? Where are you going again?" He fired questions back at me, relentless. I knew I could not act the part of some criminal by dodging questions and acting like he was the one in the right.
"Look, I'll stay right here while you go check it out if you like. I live here and I am just walking back to my..."
The crackle of his radio cut me off, and the dispatchers lovely voice blessed me with : "Black t-shirt, shirt..."
The young officer baked me with his eyeballs a little while longer, and rolled back into his seat with nary a word of apology. I leaned forward and gave a hearty, "You have a nice night now, officer!" as he drove off into the condos I now knew I would never live in.