I began to feel antsy in my room. It was around midnight. I needed to burn some energy, so I decided to take a walk around town. I didn’t realize how dark it would be until I walked through the “High Bridge Trail.” I felt like I was walking with my eyes closed. The traffic lights were deceiving. I was walking towards Main Street, and I saw the headlights of cars driving towards me and heard the hiss of tires on road behind me. I turned my head just in time to see us parallel to each other, on the road. The air smelled damp and cold. There was also this other smell I couldn’t put my finger on what it was or where it was coming from, but it was rank and drifted in and out, appearing for a few minutes and then disappearing. This cycle was repeated throughout my walk. I heard the sounds of eyes to the left in the brush, up in the tree, and to right in flophouses, watching me.
I was walking down Main Street when I saw this bum walking towards me. He wore white t-shirt, blue jeans and he was carrying a white bag in his right hand. I reached behind my back for my imaginary nine. However, the run-in occurred without incident. “How’s it goin’ son?” he asked me in a soft, meek voice. I mumbled a reply back to him as we crossed paths. I suddenly felt a sense of regret. I should have asked him something. I turned around, and he was gone. He probably rounded a corner. I mentally went over what I would have asked him, “How long you gonna let them push you around, huh?” He probably would have looked back at me with a blank stare and just kept on walking.
“There’s the true American”, I said to myself, the highwayman, who is always looking for something, something I don’t know nor will ever understand. “Those men are all crazy,” they say. Ha! Infinite is the mind of the man gone insane.
Editors note: The following is part of a creative article series. The views, opinions and positions expressed by the author(s) and those providing comments on these stories are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of The Rotunda.
