A Lonely Walk

A Story by Connor Veenstra

I was on another of my walks I take when I feel lonely. These walks only seem to make it worse, though. Hardly anybody is out walking, running or playing when I’m out walking. Everybody’s inside, with their air conditioning and TVs. Nobody sees me and I see nobody. Every day I try to take a different route. Perhaps I’ll take a left instead of right and I’ll see somebody waiting at the end of the sidewalk, longing for a friend and companion as much as I do. But it never comes to pass and I just walk by house after house. Some with boarded up windows, some with a basketball net in the driveway. All are quiet. All seem empty.

I was on another of my expeditions, my footsteps clopping down the unfamiliar street with the same familiar houses, when I saw a wide yard to my right. A green gap in between the monotonous line of houses. The grass was wild, but not unbearably tall, there were yellow and red flowers growing in delicate bushes. The sun shone through the leaves which hung over the small grove like a canopy. In the middle of this vacant lot of green sat two wooden lawn chairs, side by side as if they were built for a couple.

I looked around, confused. There was nobody in sight and the houses on either side of the vacant lot had fenced themselves off from it. Feeling weary, I sat in the chair on the right-hand side, allowing myself to slowly sink into the seat. I looked up into the tree that sat just above the twin chair, the sunlight stained green as it passed through the leaves, and closed my eyes, soaking in the spring warmth.

I opened my eyes and saw that my chair was now on a freshly painted white porch. I looked down at my clothes and found that the red shirt and khaki shorts I had been wearing were replaced with an expensive looking button up shirt and a pair of jeans. I looked out past the porch railing to find a beautifully kept garden, with petunias and roses growing in carefully dug rows of dirt. The best part about this garden, however, was that there were children playing in it. Two boys and a beautiful little girl, laughing, squirting each other with the hose, chasing one another in some make-believe game of knights and princesses.

I sat back in the chair and felt somebody grab my hand with a gentle squeeze. I look over and see a beautiful woman smiling at me, exuding love and radiance that could only come from a wife.

She leaned in and gave me a tender kiss. In that moment I was no longer alone, no longer depressed. I looked around at everything I’d gained and closed my eyes in gratitude with a sigh of contentment.

My wife reached over and put her hand on my shoulder, massaging affectionately and making her way to my neck, sending a warm feeling through my body. I sigh and lean back, eyes closed. Suddenly, my wife starts to shake me.

“Sir?” I hear her say. “Hey, mister.” My porch and house begin to fade away. I see my children dissolve like sand and my wife’s face begins to melt away. Her jet-black locks are replaced with auburn hair. Her exotic skin is replaced with pale flesh.

“Sir?” She said again, “Are you ok?”

I started and looked around me. I was back at the green lot with the same monotonous houses surrounding me. Only, it was much darker. Fireflies floated lazily, blinking in and out. Street lamps illuminated the empty roads and deserted sidewalks. Crickets chirped and frogs croaked. My house, my wife and children were all gone. I was alone again, with nobody but a strange woman as company.

I sighed. “Yes, I’m fine. Is this your property?”

She nodded. “My grandma and grandpa’s old place. Used to be a barn here. Lots of animals. I come by every now and then to check up on it. Something to get way for awhile. These were their chairs. He’d sit on the right and she’d sit on the left.” She rambled when she spoke, like she had a dam of conversations she was trying to keep from bursting.

“I can leave if you want,” I said, starting to get up.

“No, it’s fine. I mean, if you wanna stick around, you can.” She seemed nervous, like she wanted me to stay, but didn’t want to seem weird or imposing. I stayed like that for a couple of seconds, halfway off the chair, suspended in midair, considering her offer. On the one hand, it was odd, just sitting down with a complete stranger. Then again, I was glad that there was somebody else around. I wasn’t so lonely anymore.

I slowly sat back down, my eyes never leaving her pretty, sun-kissed face. She sat down beside me and flipped open a book, nervously turning the pages one by one, even though there was a bookmark in the middle. She noticed it and her face turned red as she opened the book to the marked spot.

We sat there for awhile in awkward silence, stealing glances at each other, wondering what to say. I started sweating as my brain came up devoid of topics of conversation. What should I talk about? Where she grew up? What she thinks of the war? The hurricanes? Her freaking name? Here I was, a lonely man sitting next to a pretty woman and I couldn’t think of any way to break the ice.

Calm down, I thought to myself. You don’t need to know her whole life story. Just talk to her like she was a friend. With that in mind I sat back, relaxing, and my eye caught the book she was reading.

“What’s the book?” I asked.

“War and Peace,” she replied, looking as relieved as I was that somebody had finally spoken.

“No kidding?” I didn’t think anybody was still reading that book.

She nodded. “It was a gift from my grandmother. She gave it to me when I was a kid, but I never picked it up. I was always more of a Harry Potter girl. It was only after she died when I started reading it. 50 years she saved this book for me and I never even glanced at it.” Tears started welling in her eyes and she wiped them away angrily.

“What’s it about?” I asked, hoping it would take her mind off her grief.

We talked for a while about the book, then about her favorite books (Lord of the Rings), then her favorite movies (also Lord of the Rings). Then we talked about the annoying people in our lives, the mundane irritations we faced at our jobs. We had a pretty good laugh over her boss, who thought he was God’s gift to women even though he weighed almost 300 pounds and smoked cigars constantly. We laughed about that one for a while. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to laugh with somebody. It was amazing. She looked down at her watch. We’d been talking for almost three hours.

“I’d better get going,” she said, rising from her chair. “Thanks for talking with me,” she said.

“Welcome,” I said. Unbeknownst to her, I was having a mental debate whether or not to ask for her number. My hands were sweating and my heart was beating heavily as I shook her hand goodbye. What if she says no? What if she thinks I’m some kind of creep?

She lingered a bit after she let go of my hand, shifting from one foot to the other as the night air blew in our faces. She blushed, gave me one last smile and began to walk away, out of my life. Suddenly, like a volcano finally bursting, the words erupted from my mouth:

“Hey, can I get your number?” I felt my face flush red as she whipped around. She thinks I’m a creep, I immediately thought. She’s going to say no and never talk to me ever gain.

“Sure,” she said, to my total surprise. She walked back towards me, pulling out her phone. I pulled mine out, nearly dropping it from my shaking hands. I punched her number into my phone right beside her name: Laura.

“So, yeah,” I stuttered, slipping my phone back in my pocket, my heart pounding. “I’ll text you later. Tomorrow, maybe.”

“Sure,” she said, blushing again, her brown freckles popping out against her tomato skin. We stood there for a while, not wanting to walk away, just staring at the other’s feet.

“Well, see ya.”

We walked away, in our own direction, I back down the street toward home and her across it, down a dirt road. I watched her walk away into the darkness for a while, unable to take my eyes away. The houses didn’t seem so empty any more, with their windows lit up, glowing warm in the darkness. The starry sky looked down on us as we both went off into the night. Each one friend richer. Each with a brighter potential future dancing in our heads.