By Eric Jackson
When I set out for my walk I started small one around the coffee table then twice around. After a while I grew tired of the table and ventured out into the world I walked past several schools and many of my friends. I walked until my legs hurt, but I didn�t let it get to me. Other days as I walked they felt great and I walked with a larger faster stride. I walked into a business and out the other side sat the nicest church I could have even imagined in all my walking. I walked home from the church with a nice woman I was luckier than most.
When I finally walked home I never stopped walking it was just in one area. When I�d leave again for my walks the other women would tease my wife, �Where does he go? What if he doesn�t come back?�
My wife the shrew wouldn�t blink or give a sigh in her reply, �He goes walking and he has always come back.� Walking I saw two children two girls and a boy. The girls were quite lady like and would make a father proud. The boy would grow into a fine man and always looked after the two girls. I enjoyed walking more as I grew older until I had to walk to the hospital. The walk there was longer than it ever had been and made me very tired.
Inside everyone was walking but me I refused to walk forward. When I finally did I saw her in the bed. She smiled as she always had and laughed when I told her I was walking. �Don�t stop walking on account of me.� I agreed and walked to a funeral home I didn�t like it there but it was on the way. I walked to my home for the final time and looked at all my things. I owned quite a lot of walking shoes the thought made me smile.
I walked out and locked the door. I normally just walk in the same place or area. Very few times I walked in a new and far away place. This time I just walked where the road went. The best way to describe what happen next is, I was walking until I was walking where I wasn�t. Behind me was not where I had been because there was nothing behind me. In front of me was a place that no longer was. It was a small stone path several feet wide with a babbling stream to a side and candle lamps to the other. The trees were in season and the air smelled sweet.
I had never been here, but knew it was long past this places time. I walked out of reality. I followed the path until it let out at a large parking lot empty save one car. I approached the car when a man opened the drivers door and got out. I offered him a greeting and he returned it. I asked him about his odd looking car, for it was light of steel and thin looking. He was polite, but not well spoken.
We exchanged names which gave us both an odd expression. Neither name seemed to sound right to us. I then asked where we were. He told me. I asked again. He repeated. It just wasn�t sticking. �You�re new here aren�t you?� He asked sitting on what appeared to be the hood of his car.
�Yes I just arrived to where ever it is we are.� I said sitting in the grass separated by the concrete. �How did you arrive?� I asked.
�I was on a road trip I assume it doesn�t matter any more because I don�t remember starting the trip.� As he spoke a woman appeared in the passenger side of his car. Well �appear� is the wrong word because she had always been there. The man I met looked at my expression then followed my gaze. The woman for her part looked in a mirror touching her face and hair every few seconds.
Her hair was quite bizarre it sparkled and seemed to be pushing away from her head in the most haphazard fashion. She had on a lot of makeup in the most unnatural colors. The garments she was adorned with covered very little, at least one of us is being modest.
�You�ll get used to that it happens all the time. Just because it wasn�t there doesn�t mean it isn�t.� After saying this he stood, shook my hand and entered his car. I waved as he drove off and looked around. I was alone for the first time in so long. When walking there are always people you know about now it�s all empty. Things I don�t understand seemed to be happening in places that are strange and tainted. They seem normal from a distance until close inspection then you realize that it�s all wrong. Of course it only feel wrong, but it is what it is.
I�m tired for the first time I don�t want to walk any more I think I�ll try and find my way home and just rest. I started up the path that led to the lot and back through where I wasn�t.