A Winter Walk

by Dean Ramirez

The early December sky seemed to have frozen over with thick clouds that forbade even a sliver of the sun's rays to reach the Earth, dooming the luscious greenery that usually decorated the area. Each gust of air sliced through my jacket and the layers of shirts underneath. Each gust nipped at me urging me to walk faster.

As the journey continued, the trip wore on me. The cold slowly drained my stamina like an insatiable tick. Each gust cut clean to my core slowly turning me numb with each step, yet I had to continue if I wanted to complete my journey in time. The strong wind forced me to keep my head down and almost shut my eyes to avoid them drying out anymore than they already had. Eventually, I heard crackling leaves ahead, and I raised my head slightly to see the lonesome outline of someone much smaller than me. As I got closer, what they were doing became clearer as well as why they were so much smaller. It was a small boy who couldn't have been older than eight or nine. He wore a thick red jacket made for the snow, which looked much nicer than mine.

Seeing someone so young alone on such a cold day, with a thick jacket or not, seemed a bit odd but not entirely impossible. While I pondered what he might be doing out alone, my question was quickly answered. The boy jumped from leaf to leaf only pausing to giggle before he began to scan the ground for another unsuspecting leaf. Since he was playing along my route, running into him seemed inevitable. I hoped he would choose a leaf somewhere in the grass so I wouldn’t have to endure the awkwardness of passing him. Almost as if the wind had heard me, a leaf blew past the boy just slow enough to make him think he could catch it, but as he chased it, the boy saw the leaf would be blown off the path. His smile fell as he watched his prey escape. It became clear that my plans to avoid the boy would fail.

He cocked his head to the side before meeting my gaze with a questioning stare.

“Hello. Who are you?” to which I replied with my name.

“Where are you going?” he continued.

After a moment of deliberation, I decided there was no harm in telling the boy where I was going. “I’m heading to those buildings just up there.” I pointed in roughly what I thought was the right direction.

With a quick grin, the boy said, “Me, too. Can I walk with you?”

“Why would you need to go to the buildings ahead? Won’t your parents worry if you wander off?”

“My parents told me to follow the path, and they would meet me at the end.”

This seemed odd, but as another gust of air hit me, I was reminded I had to keep moving; otherwise, I would never make it in time. I sighed. “Sure. Let's get going.”

The boy strode ahead of me pausing only to claim another victim in his leaf crushing game. Along the way, the boy asked many questions, and I patiently answered them slowly learning more about him as we continued onward. Despite the game, he shivered, and his teeth chattered loudly, yet he seemed not to notice as he continued the barrage of questions. On the other hand, the cold had begun to get to me. The cold tingling in my feet and hands sapped my resolve. I found myself focusing on the cold that slowly spread throughout my body. My only distraction was the consistent string of questions. Whether it was his resilience or simply being scared to miss meeting his parents, his persistence impressed me. I found myself grateful for his resilience, and I wondered if I had anything like that in me. It had been quite a while since I had met someone quite as cheerful; in fact, I was surprised to realize that I may not have met someone as cheerful since I was his age. As our trip wore on, he began to slow, and his smile grew more taunt as if he was troubled by something.

“Are you okay? You look worried.”

The boy turned to me. “It's going to rain soon.” He glanced up, worried.

I looked up just as a drop of rain landed on my face inciting a long sigh from me and a laugh from the boy. We picked up our pace but so did the rain slowly soaking us both as the drizzle continued. Each drop that landed on my jacket felt as if someone was pressing a fire iron made of ice slowly into my skin. Each gust of already freezing wind pushed that fire iron a little deeper. I lowered my head and continued onward accepting my fate of being caught in the rain, but the boy had other plans. He jumped along the path as if he was trying to dodge the rain, and despite failing, he continued to try.

Finally, he looked at me and said,” Let's run! We’ll get there faster.”

“What if we slip and fall?”

“Then we can get up and start running again because then we won't have to worry about falling because we already did.”

I laughed. “You can run then. I’ll just walk.”

“But won’t you get cold?” the boy asked with an inquisitive look.

“Besides, staying here isn’t any fun.”

“You should come with me so we can get out of the rain.”

I smiled and shook my head. The boy frowned then took off at a sprint eagerly looking ahead, happy to take on whatever came next. I lowered my head and began my slow pace again. The only company I had now was the soft pattering of the rain on the pavement and the cold air. Slowly, the day grew darker, and the clouds refused to budge making the darkness so intense, it seemed to engulf everything. The only confirmation that I still existed was slowly pried from my grasp as the cold finally succeeded in completely numbing me. I let out an ironic laugh before falling face-first to the pavement. As I lay there exhausted and numb, the pavement slowly soaked away the last of my strength. This is ok, I thought to myself. I’m okay here.

Just as my eyes began to close, I remembered my trip—the cold hounding me every step of the way, starting as a small annoyance then slowly chipping away at my resolve until it began to constantly will me to stop and rest only for a moment. The rain that had started with a small pitter-patter now savagely tore away any protection from the cold I had before. Each step felt as if I was climbing Everest and had just reached another false peak, and it looked like I didn’t have the energy to find out if there was another peak ahead of me until I remembered the boy. The small boy ran off because he believed he would find the end of the path despite the cold, his shivering, and his chattering teeth. He had known what he set out to do and planned to finish it. I placed one hand underneath me and slowly pushed myself up before getting onto my knees. I spent several minutes sitting there regaining my strength wondering to myself if I had ever been like that when I was younger.

Ahead of me, I noticed a lamppost. Underneath it stood the lonesome outline of a person much smaller than me. With that, I bundled my worn, red jacket close to me and lumbered slowly forward ignoring the biting cold wondering who could be out on a day as cold as this.