WALKING

What a wonderful pleasure it is to walk. To be able to get from one place to another by your own means. Without the need of any other device. Yes, it might take longer, but you would have achieved it by yourself. That is what Rocco always thought. He could have gotten himself a bicycle, but he never did. However he arrives where he wants and the time he intends to. He prefers walking alone, but sometimes he allows the eventual friend to walk along with him. He does not has many of those. Not many friends, partially because he is thinks he might slow them down and partially because they might slow him down.

THE NARROW ROAD

Everyday, enough before sunset, I take a shortcut home. It is a narrow road I discovered a few months back and ever since then I use it. It is mostly straight with only a few turns. It goes through some city farms and there are a few other roads intersecting it. It was mostly built next to a stream of crystalline water. This is just a small creek, but the flow of water calms me down from the city rush. I cannot tell where the stream comes from and where is it going. I would not know. As streams usually flow down the hill,  but there are also those that flow up. Some kind of magnetism perhaps. It would be nice to know, but this road is rather flat and I cannot tell where is up and down the hill. So I just keep walking and pretend to ignore it. 

On the left side there are some crops. At some point they are short with wide long leaves and further in they become taller with smaller darker leaves. He often wonders what kind of crops they are. He could have asked his grandfather, who was a skilful farmer. But he only keeps the regret of not spending more time with him. Over all he regrets not spending more time with his family. He always sets himself to do so, but never really does.

AFTER THE MIST

Rocco seldom wanders on the converging roads. And yet he knows that wandering is how wondrous places are found. So on this mid-autumn evening he walked and walked with an explorer’s heart.Often asking himself how much longer, but he did not know for sure. He knew he would get to where he wanted at the right time. He had a few songs in his mind but he could not remember the lyrics, just the tunes and they were his only company.

Further in, there were also a few lizard on the road, the kind that would only go out at night and have brighter colours. The closer he got, the more the vivid the colours. He had his pockets full of emotions and he hold tight to them as a thick mist came down. But he kept on walking.

Finally, with the first ray of light he found it. I was a forest. It was mysterious and alluring. However, the only way to get to it was to cross a rather stronger stream than the crystalline one that flows next to the narrow road. There wasn’t any bridge on sight, so he stayed on the other side and admired it from the distance.

After a while, he decided to go back and soon realized that the forest was not as far as he thought.

FLOWER GIRL

On an afternoon in late winter, he was walking on his usual path when in one of the other roads, he saw a girl. She was carrying a basket full of flowers.

I would not know what kind of flowers were they. I just know they were yellow. Unintentionally I slowed down my pace and stared at her. She noticed me as she walked by and gave a tiny smile.  She did not stop, just kept walking and then she crossed a bridge that was ahead. I could only think on how I would never see her again, but I felt very attracted to the girl with the flowers. I wanted to cross over and ask for  her name, but as I was in front of the bridge I pretended not to notice her and kept walking. I would not know what to say. So I let her go. 

A couple a weeks later he saw her again. She saw him in the distance and kept walking, very similar to the first encounter. Rocco imagined she had forgotten him, as they had only shared less than a second staring at each other, and then there was the smile she send him. That smile that kept him awake for many nights. However, this time he decided to ignore her, to act as if she was not too important, and keep walking.

In a blink she had disappeared and Rocco immediately regretted his decision.  He closed his eyes, and wished he could turn back time just a few second and ask for her name. So he stopped walking and frowned in disappointment, in disappointment of himself.

A moment later he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turn around. It was her! And she was smiling.

-“Hi! Why don’t you come walk on the other roads? They are wider.”- She said and waited for his reply, but as Rocco was too surprised to answer she offered him one of the flowers in the basket.

I knew that if I answer I would stammer, so I pretended I hadn’t notice her before. I did not even smile and took the flower, but she did not let go waiting for an answer. 

-“I like this road.”- I said coldly regretting my attitude immediately. 

She let go of the flower, smiled once again and left. I wanted to follow her, but I would not know what to say. So I didn’t.

ACROSS THE BRIDGE 

Rocco did not see her for a few days. All this time he kept telling to himself that he would not let her go the next time.  And so, one of the first days of spring he saw her cross the bridge without noticing him. He fisted my hands as giving himself strength and then followed her over the bridge. This time, he spoke first.

-“Hi!”- He said, very shyly.

She did not reply, just smiled. But she stopped. She had stopped walking just for him. So, now he had all her attention and  continued:

-“What is your name?”- He wanted to say so much more, but that is the only thing he could think of. He was sure that just by knowing her name, he would know much more about her.

-“Maia”- She said,  and smile again. Rocco wished she did not smiled that much, as he was getting more and more nervous.

-“I am Rocco.”- He said and was finally able to smile back.

That was our first conversation. The first of many. I soon discovered that she was not a local and she tried to teach how to pronounce her name in her native language, but it was hard for me. Then she said that it was fine, as she had been here so long that she was used to just being Maia. 

FLOWERS

She’s lived very near to our first encounter, in a farm-house. Her passions were flowers and she had a green house in her backyard and a flower shop in the city. Her flowers would take most of her time. She delicately cared for them and spend long hours making sure they would not only grow healthy but perfectly.

 

She tried to explain to me the difference between a lotus and a magnolia, but besides the colour I could  tell no difference.  But as you can see, I learned the names. In contrast to me, she did had a bicycle and enjoyed taking the local bus. When she walked she would usually prefer wider roads fuller of people. Sometimes I would walk with her, but mostly I made her walk though the ones I preferred.

 She told me a lot about her country and other places she had seen. I often wondered why she stayed in this city, but I fear the answer so I did not asked her so I would not know. But I wanted to know, so I set myself to see those places with my own eyes and get there with my own feet. And I would do so. 

THE BUILDING OF THE BRIDGE

Rocco wanted to show her the forest, as he knew she would like it. But he had forgotten where it was. When he finally found it again, he took her there. This time the stream was stronger than before therefore Rocco thought they could not cross and suggested to just admire it from the distance, as he had done before.

-“You don’t think you can build a bridge and show me what is there?”- She asked. “I know it will take you a little while to take me there, but I just hope it is not too long.”- She said and  made a pause. Maia looked at her feet then slowly spoke again.- “I will be right here with you.”-

So I did. I built a bridge just for her and me. I took me shorter that I thought it would,  and as soon as it was ready I took her back.

THE FOREST

For the coming weeks we would meet each other everyday on a special spot that was right after crossing the bridge.  The forest was magnificent. It was worth every second I spent sawing and hammering the wood for the bridge. 

Everyday we would explore and discover a different side. A new part of it. Each area was more magical than the previous one. One afternoon we found a little pond. It was perfectly clean and did not have any wild weed. The water was clear and refreshing. But the most intriguing feature was that it only had white and blue fish that could talk. They did not say much, though. They would only ask us to let them swim and so we did. Who would ever want to fish these creatures?

And nobody would know about them, for we would not tell. That is how we realized that nobody else should know about this forest. They might find it and change it. And it should be kept just as it was. It was out secret. Our place.

A few days later we found some marshes. There were frogs there, and they were croaking and making beautiful music. It was merely the afternoon but the fireflies were already up and dancing at the frogs melody.

Some nights during summer, we would stay during the night and count the stars reflected in our eyes. 

The forest was indeed magical and we did not want to forget all the beautiful things we had encounter so we made a map.  But we would keep it hidden so nobody would find it. 

WINTER

For a couple of years it was only Maia and I. Was it love, I would not know? But being with her remind me of a warm spring morning, full hope and colour. The touch of her skin gave me life and she was the only reason of my happiness. I was a different person or so I thought, until that winter day when she did not come. 

Rocco waited for her, and looked everywhere but she wasn’t there. He felt desperate and betrayed. The only thing in his mind was that she had spoked about the forest with somebody else. That she had betrayed him, that she had betrayed everything they did. Never before in his life he felt like this. He could not control it and there were many thoughts in his mind. Before the last ray of sun light he went home.

They next day, when it was the usual time to go to the forest he didn’t go. He could only think of how he had felt the previous day and he was determined to never feel like that again. Two days after he did not go either, nor the day after, or the day after that. Soon the days became weeks and he stopped thinking about Maia. He repressed his feelings and pretended to ignored them.

Perhaps there were too many emotions surrounding him and not longer in his pocket, so one day he grabbed his backpack and decided to see the places he once set himself to see with his own eyes and reach with his own feet.

Before he left he city he decided to see the forest one last time. If Maia had told many people about it, then it would have definitely changed, but he needed to see it.

When we finally stood right before the bridge he built he stopped. His knees weaken with the sight in front of him. He felt his back pack heavy so he took it off and dropped it.

Maia was right across the bridge, standing in the same spot they used to meet.

She smiled with an effort and dropped her basket of flowers, dead flowers. She wanted to cry one more time, but her eyes were already dry.

– “You stopped coming, but I never did. On day I was late, as some of my flowers were dying. I tried to saved but they died anyway. I ran to find you, but it was already dark when I arrived. After that I rarely left this spot  for I knew one day you would come back. But now I see, you came back for the forest and not for me.”- She stopped for a moment to take a breath  and finally one tear came out. -“take the map with you, so you don’t forget it, for I know that you and your walking will get very far. “-

Rocco took the map and hold her for a moment. He took her home and got a glimpse of the greenhouse. It was once colourful and even butterflies and bumblebees would come in, but now it was grey and mostly dead. He regretted all that happened but now his back pack was ready.

He kissed Maia’s forehead and left. Before he closing the door, he placed the map on a table near by.

Then he continued walking by the narrow road.