Bloom

2. distracting walks

Zephaniah

Five months later

The gravel path crunched beneath my feet, the small stones stabbing the back of them through my pretty worn out fake, black slip on 'Vans'. I had had them ever since I was little, only having to buy a bigger size two or three times throughout the years.

They had always been my favourite shoes, so switching seemed unneccessary, especially since I had pretty much based every outfit I wore on those shoes. Not forgetting to mention that I never really liked switching. Shoes, other materialism or schools. It wouldn't matter, I just didn't like it.

"Don't your paws hurt, Coop?" I wondered quietly, watching my dog as he happily skipped beside me, tail wiggling in satisfaction.

Smiling, I looked up at the blue sky as chirping birds flew over us, loudly announcing that spring had finally arrived. It seemed to do good to people, as people I hadn't seen in ages, were suddenly outside again. Mostly the elder ones, as their bones started to hurt in winter, the coldness boring the pain through them shamelessly during those dark days.

Almost every garden I passed, was either occupied by the elder watering their plants or planting seeds, or families that gathered together, cold drinks placed on the table.

I blushed once I made eye contact with one of them, quickly looking away and focusing on Cooper instead. He was sniffing around, guarding his territory as he lifted his leg and sprayed a little urine.

Scrunching up my nose, I pulled the beanie further over my black hair, staring at the unstructured tiles on the ground. Some were black, white dots of damaging visible on them, while some where grey. I wasn't sure if they were bleached because of the sun, or because they did it on purpose.

I had always stared at it, each time I walked over them. It had always bothered me. Why couldn't they just put the same colour, in neat rows? It was probably made like this on purpose, but it was messy and that automatically made it busy in my head.

Cooper poked my leg with his snout, whining a little. I moved my attention to him, knowing he did this to distract me- to prevent me from becoming upset about certain things. "What do you think about all of t-this, Cooper?"

He didn't answer. He never did, but he didn't have to. Talking to him always made me feel better about myself. It was my way of coping with certain things. Other people expressed themselves in singing, writing probably. This was my way.

We walked past number one hundred and two, the old woman I hadn't known the name of, but waved every single time I walked by with Cooper. She did so today as well. Smiling shyly, I waved back at her, trying to hold eye contact for more than five seconds.

She was always sitting in the same chair, with either a book or the newspaper on her lap. I wondered if she was alone, if she felt alone. Baba had suggested for me to stop by one day, but I had never dared to do so.

Walking over a small bridge that crossed a small water stream, Cooper and I arrived at the other side of the road, where more houses and lively gardens were seen. Someone had just been mowing, the smell of fresh grass filling my nose.

For some reasons, I thought the smell of recently cut grass was oddly satisfying, and I stood still for a moment, closing my eyes to feel the sun and sniff the scent. It was peaceful outside at this very moment, so I felt calm and not too much distracted.

That, until the man started mowing again, making me flinch at the sudden loud noise. I frowned a little and quickly walked further, huffing. I stared at the ground again, noticing a lot of things that Baba and Mum wouldn't ever see.