The Walk
By
Stuart Mackay
The Walk
Stuart Mackay
Copyright 2013 Stuart Mackay
He parked his car in the secluded car park, he gazed out the window as a beam of sunlight fought its way through the trees and basked his car, he got out the car and folded in the driver side mirror, he then went round to the passenger side and did the same, he opened the boot and grabbed his walking shoes placing them intensively on the ground next to the car, he took off his suit jacket, folding it gently before placing it in the immaculately clean boot, his shirt and tie were next, he reached into the boot again and pulled out a t shirt and quickly put it on, he looked down at the ground before pulling out a small mat to which he put on the ground, he pulled his right leg up and took off his shoe and sock before placing his foot on the mat before repeating he process with his left foot, he started to undo his belt before stopping, he listened but he couldn’t hear anyone, a quick glance at the 5 other cars he realised he was alone, he quickly took off his suit trousers and reached for his walking trousers and quickly pulled them on before transferring the content of his pockets to his new trousers, then he took his belt from old trousers and put them on his new, he smiled to himself as he put the belt on as he had gone down a notch. As he was bending down to put on his walking socks he stopped to listen to the birds that had started to sing nearby, once they had flown away he put on his socks and then his shoes, he reached into the boot and pulled out his small rucksack, he looked inside and made sure that the usual contents were inside, he nodded to himself, happy that everything was in order, he then went into the Waitrose bag and brought out the bottle of stilled water and a tuna sandwich, he was about to zip shut the rucksack when he stopped and reached for a banana as well, once he was happy he zipped up his rucksack and put it on his back, he then closed the boot door and locked the car. He put the keys in his pocket and started to walk, after about 7 steps he stopped and went back to the car and checked it was locked, once satisfied he started his walk again.
He had taken a few steps on the path when an overweight man was being basically dragged by a boisterous black Labrador, the dogs eyes wide as it pulled on its lead, its tongue was practically falling out the left hand side of its mouth, the man smiled briefly as they walked past each other, his beetroot face indicated that the notion of saying hello would have used the little energy that he had left, he turned back and watched as the dog led his master to the Audi estate, the man reached into his pocket and brought out his keys, a quick press of the fob made his job of opening the boot that much easier, he dog jumped inside and sat down, the man reached inside and brought out a large bottle of what looked like coke and frantically opened he bottle before guzzling half of its contents before gasping for breath, he then finished he bottle and looked about the car park possibly for a bin before throwing the bottle inside the boot, as he leant forward his dog started to lick his face, fountains of dog drool now covered the man’s face, the man quickly pushed the dog away before frantically wiping his face, he then got into his car and drove away.
The man laughed at what he had just witnessed before turning back and continuing along the path, after a few minutes the car park was out of sight and he was walking on a path through nature, the path meandered left and right, with each turn it revealed its hidden sights, he stopped at a small clearing and simply gazed at the flowers and ferns. He looked up when he heard more bird song, closing his eyes to enhance his senses, he heard movement, the light rustling of small twigs and leaves to his left hand side a glance and he spotted the rabbit that had caused them, the rabbit stopped and turn its head in his direction, after a brief look the rabbit realised it wasn’t a threat and carried on with its day, a few minutes later the rabbit was out of sight and the man carried on with his walk.
A jogger was running towards him, her bright pink florescent vest made her easy to spot, her athletic body made her hard to ignore, he took a step to the left to give her room to run by, she nodded thanks or she may have just have been enjoying the song that she was listening to, the lead to her earphones was also bright pink to match her vest, even when running in a forest in the middle of nowhere she still had to look good, he turned as she ran past and watched as her blonde ponytail acted like metronome for her music, he watched her as she rounded a corner and out of sight, he smiled to himself at a brief daydream before it too was gone forever.
He had been walking a couple of miles when he saw a bench that was overlooking a break in the treeline; he took off his rucksack and then sat down on the bench and took in the view, reaching into the rucksack he took out the water and took a small drink, in the distance he noticed a hot air balloon drifting through the sky, the route of it’s journey being decided by the light breeze, he felt a pang of jealousy, taking a ride in a hot air balloon was on his bucket list, although he wanted to float over the Serengeti, gaze down at wildlife rather than gaze down at the endless amount of cars travelling about the endless amount of roads that smeared the landscape. He gazed up at the cloudless sky and let the sun gently massage his face. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there, just daydreaming, he felt something touch his hand and opened his eyes and saw a dog was sniffing his hand, the dog took a jump back when he moved his hand, but then came back again, he reached out and petted it, the man looked up and down the path, but there was no one there, he looked again and saw an elderly woman walking towards him with a worried look on her face, “Tara,” he held her shout.
The man looked down at the dog; “Tara?” the dog looked up at him as it heard her name, he then waved at the old woman and pointed at the dog, she smiled at him and slowed her pace.
“Tara,” the dog ran towards her, “she’s either too young or I am too old,” she said in between gasping for breaths as she walked towards him.
The man stood up and put on his rucksack, “well the bench is all yours,” he turned to look at the view one more time before turning back to the woman, “enjoy the view,” he leant down and patted the dog on the head.
The old woman smiled at him and quickly sat down, the dog jumped up on the bench beside her and lay down, “thank you,” the man started to walk away, “enjoy the rest of your walk.”
“Thanks,” he replied as he started to walk back on the path.
He walked for another mile or so before the path split into two different paths, he chose the left hand side one and as the path turned sharply left he stopped, through the trees, no more than 30 feet away, he saw a deer approach the little stream that ran parallel with this part of the path, he stopped walking and sat down as quietly as he could on a fallen tree, the deer heard the noise but didn’t run away, he watched as the deer took in its surroundings, eyes scanning everywhere, he was close enough to see the deer smell the air, it then made small noise and a young fawn appeared through the overgrown ferns and joined its mother, both then started to drink from the stream, every so often the mother would look up and check if there was any dangers. He watched in total fascination until both deer’s ran away at the sound of either a chainsaw or a dirt bike that could be heard in the distance.
He could hear the water before he saw it, he reached the footbridge that spanned the cut in the landscape, he stopped and leaned on the rail, the once blue rail now faded into a dark grey, the years of being exposed to the elements had taken its toll, he gazed down and watched as the river meandered it way through the bottom of the glen, over to his left he spotted a rainbow that was entwisting itself in the waterfall, he smiled at the beauty of it all and then slapped the railing, knowing what he had to do, he took a deep breath and placed a foot on the middle railing and then stopped, he glanced to his left and to the be
nch that was positioned overlooking the waterfall and the bridge, he remembered he still had his sandwich in his rucksack and for an obscure reason he decided he should eat it first, he took his foot off the railing and walked towards the empty bench, he sat down and reached into his rucksack and brought out the bottle of water and his sandwich, he took a bite of the sandwich and smiled as the combination of the tuna and onion melted in his mouth, he continued eating but his eyes were focused on the footbridge, he finished his sandwich and put the wrapper back into his rucksack and then brought out the banana, he then washed down the banana and sandwich with the rest of the water, his eyes still on the footbridge.
“Why did you leave me?” he asked himself, he ran his fingers through his hair, as he brought his hand back down he wiped it on his trousers as there was sweat on it from his head, he shook his head, “why? I thought we were happy, I thought we had a future.”
He sat on the bench for about 10 minutes, his eyes constantly on the bridge, “4 years, 4 years we were together, and I propose to you and what do you do? Laugh, laugh as if