It’s another ‘Write on Wednesdays’ and this week’s exercise is to simply ‘Take a Walk’ and then come back home and write about it, how it felt. Given the weather has been appalling around here the last couple of days I was a little hesitant when I read this but it seems the prompt triggered some synapses in my subconscious because after reading the prompt about walking I began humming the Patsy Cline song Walking After Midnight.

So I seized on this little bit of subconscious inspiration and decided to stay safe and dry indoors and rather write about my own walk, I thought I could write about my interpretation of the walk that inspired Patsy’s song. So here goes, I hope you enjoy…

Moonlight fell on the cracks of the ground as she emerged from the bare restroom. Taking a deep breath she began to make her way through the parking lot back towards the car. Shaking off the last half hour and 40 miles of petty quarrelling, she knew when she returned to the car it would be with her tail between her legs and a heart full of apologies. She let her temper get the better of her – again – and she knew she had gone a bit too far this time. Why couldn’t she just learn to keep her mouth shut?

With her head swirling, she suddenly looked around for the car realising it was not where it should be. After an instant of panic, a slow smile spread across her face. This was just like him, his cheeky sense of humour always got the better of him, driving her nuts and making her laugh all at the same time. She stood by the entrance to the gas station, waiting for his headlights to pierce the darkness so she could do some silly hitchhiker move. Once he stopped she’d play it cool, lean down in through his window, give him a tiny glimpse of the goods and act coy – he’d like that.

She stood there waiting and waiting, the sickly smell of gasoline seeping into her nostrils, her anger and embarrassment growing hotter. He wasn’t coming back. She couldn’t believe it! Their relationship had always been a very intense one, arguments always got heated and sometimes things were said that they didn’t mean, or should never be said but they always managed to work it out. That’s what made them so passionate. For all the times he’d threatened to leave her by the side of the road, she couldn’t believe he’d actually done it.

It was after midnight when she started walking, not exactly sure where she was going but knowing she was headed in the right direction. Maybe he was waiting, just a ways down the road. Trying to teach her a lesson. Yes, that would be it. She picked up her pace, her pride grateful for the lack of cars driving these roads at this time of night. Her shoes crunched on the gravel and she began to wonder if he was waiting for her at all, maybe she’d gone too far this time.

She continued on, using the weeping willow trees that lined the road for shelter. The trees seemed frozen in a constant state of sadness as if in sympathy to her. She tried to cheer herself up, thinking of all the times they’d gone walking the streets together in the middle of the night, pretending tonight was just like they used to do. But the wind picked up and the drooping branches of the willow trees whipped at her menacingly, as if reaching for her.

Suddenly keenly aware of just how alone she was on a deserted stretch of back road, the fear set in and she wished those reaching branches were his arms reaching to pull her into the safety of his chest, to squeeze her and tell her what a bad girl she was but that everything would be ok. Oh how she wished that he would find her out there searching for him. After all she wasn’t walking home, wasn’t walking to safety, she was simply searching for him. To make everything ok.

To be honest, I’m not sure I really nailed the brief this week…really I was supposed to talk about how the walk felt and the character’s surroundings. I guess I struggled to incorporate that into my interpretation of the song because I wanted to convey the meaning of this girl being out walking, searching for her man. Perhaps if I was writing something a little more lengthy I could have achieved it but I know describing the environment around my characters is something I need to work on in my writing.