Asterisk Week 22: Sobre Caminhar
We were hiking and suddenly…
Texto por: Viviane Souza
O post de hoje é referente à semana de 29 de maio à 05 de junho. O prompt era “We were hiking and suddenly…”, e foi escolhido por um dos membros do nosso projeto.
Os textos você confere abaixo:
The best hiking ever
Morning hiking:
I cannot say I like it,
but there was a time when
it was the best thing.
Once we were hiking
- my husband and I -
and, all of a sudden,
we found a friend.
A friend we had never seen
but we knew, that day along,
we’d share that connection
forever and ever.
Poor thing,
our friend was crying
and had no perspectives
but a life on the streets,
under sun and rain
and human unkindness.
My husband and I
looked at eachother and
we knew we had to take that friend home,
take care of,
cherish and love him.
And, guess what,
this friend has grown up
and when people come to visit
their reaction is WOW
every time he meows.
Search Party
We were hiking and suddenly Noah stopped. We were following the tracks of an abandoned railroad for about three hours, up in the mountains. He was walking in front of me so I had to stop fast so I wouldn’t hit him.
“What’s wrong?” I said, already annoyed by the heat. Hiking was fun but three hours was too much for me.
“Do you think we’re on the right trail?” He said, turning back to look at me.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean….Where the hell are we?”
I had to take a deep breath before answering his last question in respect for whatever feeling I still had for that man,
“Are you telling me we’re lost, Noah?”
He looked around with a distinct disorientated expression only lost man could have. “Humn…maybe?”
I sat down on the tracks and started looking for my phone. I already knew I had no signal but desperate times leads to desperate actions.
“No signal” He said, sitting down next to me.
“Yeah, I know that, Noah”
“We can go back.” He said, still looking lost but for some unknown reason, calm.
“Do you know how to? Because, seriously, it looks like you don’t know how to”
“I probably know how to”
“Probably it’s not good enough, Noah” I said, losing the little bit of patient I was holding on to. “What a crazy idea of mine to agree with your crazy idea. This hike was a mistake since the beginning”
“Hey… It’s was nice so far”
“So far…what time is it? It’s going to be dark in what? Two hours? Even if we do go back, even if we knew how to go back, we’d still have to walk through this damn forest in the dark….God, I hate you, Noah”
“I think hate is a pretty harsh word”
We stayed sitting in silence for a couple of minutes, thinking of what we should do next.
“Do you think they’ll send a search party?” Noah asked, after a while.
“Who’s they” I asked.
“You know…people.”
“What people, Noah?”
“If someone goes missing…there’s always a search party, right?”
“Did you tell someone we were going hiking today?” I asked.
“Well, no… I don’t think so, but I guess… people will find out eventually.”
I thought about it for a while. Who would look for us?
“Noah…” I started grimly. “I don’t think there’ll be a search party”
Thinking about people who meant something to us, or me, or whatever, was kinda sad. Would someone even realize we weren’t there? Probably not.
He thought about it for a while before answering.
“My mom would.” He said firmly.
“Your mom lives thousands and thousands of miles from here. She doesn’t even know you went out. You talk to her once a week. By the time she finds out you went missing we’ll be long dead.”
“Well… what about our friends?”
“What friends, Noah?”
He looked at me with an exasperated expression.
“Alright, let’s go” He said, getting up.
“Let’s go where?”
“I lied ,ok? We’re not lost! There’s no way to be lost here, Rachel! It’s a one way railroad!”
“Ok” I said getting up. “Why the hell would you say we’re were lost then?”
“Because” He said, already walking out. “I thought it would be funny. It turns out it was just depressing”
We walked in silence for twenty minutes before reaching out the end of the hike. It was a great day.
Hiking on the street,
my dog by my side,
the sun was shining in the sky,
and that’s when I saw you,
standing there,
looking at me,
with those eyes.
And there I knew,
that I’d never forget that day,
when I saw you for the first time.
And I’d never forget this,
And I’d never forget you.
Me and my fear walk together
Me and my anxiety too
and my hope are hiking with us now
so the space between me and happiness
is already small
I asked myself for years
“what’s wrong with me?”
my mind and my heart has answered
that this is thing of my head
What If It not?
What If I’m really insane?
Me and my feelins were hiking
and suddenly I stop to have them
I became null.
I became neutral.
Now I’m searching for new sensations
to make me feel alive and right
What If the right doens’t exist?
What If what we are is the answer?
We were hiking and suddenly
we become dust
of Universe
I’m not a fan of exercising, nature and all of that stuff. I’m more of a Netflix-wine-chocolate marathon kind of girl, you know. So, I knew hiking was a mistake from moment one, and while I was saying “yes” out loud to my friends, inside my head my brain was yelling a very dramatic “noooooo”.
In my defense, I have the worst friends. They insisted for like a week that we should try something different, get more fresh air and blablabla. I should have known better: these hippie ideas appeared when one of the girls started yoga. Suddenly, all of them were “trying something different”, meaning something healthy and extremely boring. But, hey, even though they are the worst, I still love them. And finally I agreed.
The next weekend I woke up, got on my brand new jogging clothes and left my warm and cozy apartment to meet my friends in one of the city parks, the most famous one for hiking and totally unknown to me. It all started as I predicted: one step after another, inspire, expire, etc. My friends were very excited, talking and challenging themselves to go faster or try difficult paths. I was quiet, trying to get in the mood, so instead of chatting I started to look at the landscape.
I have to admit it was beautiful. The plants and trees seemed to glow in the morning light, and the autumn breeze was invigorating. At first I was a bit cold, but after a couple of minutes my body got used to the temperature and the hit of hiking made me feel pleased. It was rare, I thought I would drop dead after the first half an hour, but instead of fatigue I felt an intense energy and just wanted to keep going.
It was good to my eyes, that were seeing another side of the city; it was good to my body, that could use some exercise and sunlight; and, the most surprising thing, it was good to my head. I could think clearer than I’ve ever thought before, and a more positive perspective filled me with cheer and peace. Without realizing, I joined the conversation with my friends, laughing and playing around as I used to do when I was a girl and life was easier.
We were hiking and suddenly it stroke me: I was becoming one of them! I stopped for a second, frightened. What was I doing there? I already said, I’m not a nature & exercise fan. Or, at least, I wasn’t. But after that day, things were never the same. I finished the hiking morning with my friends thinking it was just a one time thing. But, slowly, their hippie ideas didn’t seem as boring as before. In my free time, I started to spend more time in the outdoors. I bought more jogging clothes, because they felt so comfortable. I started to read posts about exercising, healthy habits and other articles my yoga friend recommended. And pretty soon hiking became a regular activity in my routine.
Today, I’m in a great physical shape, my tan is amazing, my asthma is almost gone and my good mood is at the highest level. However, there were some negative consequences of this life-changing experience: I’m delayed in almost all of the series I follow in Netflix, my mom took all of my chocolate bars in order to help me to stay fit and my couch misses me — and it’s a mutual feeling sometimes, I must say.
So, my tip is: if your friends go to you with a hiking proposal, be aware! Your life will never be the same.
Graham
Out by my house there’s a trail that’s seldom been traveled down. Actually, excluding me and my friend Jack, I doubt anyone’s been down it in at least 10 years. Needless to say, it’s very overgrown with brush and the like. The only thing that keeps it resembling a trail is the deer and other critters that keep it somewhat mowed down with their feet and grazing. Well, last week Jack and I had nothing to do, so we decided that we’d finally see what was down that trail.
Before we set out in the morning for the walk, we both were sure to pack a lot of water and some granola bars. It was going to be a long, hot day, and we wanted to be sure that we didn’t keel over. After getting everything packed, we set out for the trail. This trail is kind of off on the edge of my property, and it’s completely covered by dense woods. It can look rather intimidating when you’re approaching it, and there’s always a feeling of being watched when in its proximity. This feeling was extra strong this day.
Jack and I walked right up to where the trail began and looked down it a ways. I’ll be damned if I didn’t saw anything but darkness. It was downright unworldly how dark it was down that trail, and this gave us pause; we didn’t have flashlights with us. After a few moments of hesitation, however, our curiosity got the better of us and we took our first steps down the trail. We hadn’t walked ten steps before we were suddenly awash in utter darkness.
No source of light could be found in any direction, so we were as blind men stumbling about. We could both tell that we were still close to each other, and to avoid getting separated we both just held on to each other’s arms and sat down. It was during this that I made my first effort to try and talk. I could feel my throat vibrate with my voice, but no sound reached my ears. Jack later told me that he had tried to do the same, and he ran into the same problem. Were were effectively deaf, dumb, and blind.
Panic-stricken, we both just sat there for God knows how long. I could feel my phone in my pocket, but I would not reach for it. The idea occurred to me, but for some reason my arm just wouldn’t move to get it, much like how you sometimes can’t run away from danger in a dream. Everything, both inside and outside our minds, was a hazy darkness. And then there was light.
The light was of a light green color, and it glowed like light does when it reflects off of water. It was beautiful, and both Jack and I jumped up from the ground as soon as we saw it. When we stood, we got a fuller view of the source of the light. Off to the side of the trail, obscured somewhat by some tall grass, was a pool of water. The source of the light must have been under the water, and a curious green glow was cast over all of the surrounding trees. It was like something out of an old fairy tell, and I half-expected to see some sort of magical creature ascend out of the watery depths.
Jack and I, quite foolishly I must admit, left the main trail to walk towards this pool of water. Upon getting closer, we could tell that it was about 12 ft. long by 6 ft. wide, and it was fairly deep. The bottom couldn’t be seen, nor could the source of the green glow. We walked up to the water’s edge and looked down. The green light seemed to grow stronger with our presence, and then we noticed that we were hearing something. It was the sound of our own thoughts.
Clear as anything, I could hear my inner thoughts being spoken aloud to me. My fear, confusion, interest, apprehension, etc., all were being said aloud in my own voice, even though I wasn’t speaking. I could hear Jack as well, and we both panicked. We darted back to the trail, only to find that our packs that we had left there were gone. The green glow was now strong enough to illuminated several hundred feet in every direction, and that’s when we noticed strange silhouettes darting in and out of the trees. Our thoughts were no longer being spoken by the pool, but now we could hear other voices. The language they used was hard to decipher, but it was easy to figure that they were talking about us. Their voices got much louder as they got closer.
At this point Jack and I were beside ourselves with fear. In fact, just typing this story is causing my hands to shake. I looked at Jack, and he at me, and it was then that we knew we had to run. But in which direction? Neither of us remembered which way we had come from, and it looked as though the trail just disappeared into the darkness either way. We made a choice and bolted to our right. Thank God that was the right choice. For a while everything around us appeared the same and we could still hear the pursuing voices, but then suddenly there was sunlight. Out of the darkness came the end of the trail, and we sprinted to it as fast as we could. As soon as we made it out of the woods and into the open, all of the voices behind us stopped. We were out.
Neither Jack nor I know what the hell any of that was, although I am curious. I don’t think I’ll be going back to investigate it, though.
Hike não é uma palavra que se traduz bem para o português. Ao traduzirmos para “uma caminhada” perdemos bastante de seu significado. Durante a semana, vimos diferentes caminhadas, e foi bem bacana ler tantos textos diferentes, em contextos diferentes, sobre um mesmo tema. Ah! E alguns dos textos foram baseados em fatos reais!
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Notas:
Os textos produzidos foram corrigidos por nós mesmos, então nos perdoe por qualquer erro!
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