"Walk" by artist Lisa Rae Winant
Image used by permission of the Artist
12 x 24/Oil on Panel
He absolutely hated walking. It reminded him of when he was younger and his family could only afford one car. Luke was forced to walk all over town, to his friend’s houses, the movies, anywhere worth being. He once walked all the way across town to meet a girl because he was too embarrassed to admit his lack of vehicular access.
He took another glance behind him, hoping his shitbox car was only fooling with him and would start back up on its own. The lifeless headlights stared back at him blankly through the thin mesh of falling snow, its engine still crackling and popping from his fruitless attempts to start it up.
On the bright side it wasn’t nearly as cold as the previous evening and this delay gave him time to think of how he would break it to her, “Her” being his girlfriend of nearly a year and a half. Things hadn’t been at their brightest over the last few months and he felt his decision was long overdue. It would’ve been a long walk the rest of the mile and a half to her house if he didn’t have so much on his mind.
The door bit at his knuckles as he knocked on it, reminding him what the current season was. His lips quivered, subtly mouthing the lines he had come up with along the way but the door swung open before he could finish the first verse. Although they were now face to face she didn’t seem to notice his lip sync routine.
“Jesus Luke! What took you so fucking long? Did you walk here?” is what he thought she’d say. The alternate version, “Jeez Luke, come inside it’s freezing out there,” threw him off a bit. Not that she was a total witch, but their most recent rough patch had been full of resentment, he assumed his tardiness would’ve worn at her patience.
Between shutting the door behind him and blowing on his hands Luke began “Yea my car…”, but his lazy drawl was hastily interrupted, Ashley had been aching to say something.
“Listen, I don’t think we should go out tonight,” her voice was softer than usual, as if she was speaking to a child or making a new acquaintance. Luke was about to agree, a similar line was to be the opening of his “break up” speech, but Ashley’s pace did not slow.
“Things have been rough lately, neither of us has been very happy; I mean you’ve noticed right?”
Luke hesitated, half preoccupied with his jammed zipper and wondering where this was going. “Yea I mean, I’ve felt the same way.” As the words left his mouth he felt a sort of fluctuation of senses, primarily touch. First heightening, he felt as if he was just noticing the presence of his skin and fingertips for the first time, then drastically dulling, the tips of his fingers sensitivity reducing to that of the skin of the elbow. Yea he knew where this was going.
It was a long walk back to the car.
