I just got back from a hearty gambol about the woods behind my house. I swung on vines, bounced on a naturally occurring see-saw, climbed a tree, and gooshed through mud. It was grand!The thing about these woods is that there are paths worn through them by hundreds of traipsing feet. Well. If you know me, you know how I feel about walking where everyone else has decided we should all walk, so I'll spare you the cliché. Needless to say, I usually ignore the paths.
So there I was, in the middle of my best (silent) Tarzan impression (which isn't very good, so please don't ask to see it), when I hear (shouted, distant), "Aaarouuuooost!"
I look around. There are two little boys standing on a hill in the trailer park a few hundred feet through the trees.
"Huh?"
"Are! You! Lost!"
"Nope!"
"Who! Are! You!"
"Amy! Who are you?"
"Jay!"
And then they scurried away. What nice boys, checking on me like that! I decided to head back. I hiked through some frozen marshiness and over a hill to emerge at the end of my street. At that moment, an old seminary classmate who lives just outside the treeline pulls out of his garage. He sees me and calls out (faint British-African accent, surprised) "Amy! Are you okay?"
"Hi! Yeah!" (desnagifying my pant legs from some ubiquitous purple thorny sticks) "I was just going for a walk."
"Back there??"
"Yeah. I don't like the trails."
"You mean, you just ... go offroading??"
"Uh, yeah."
At this point, he questioned me about where I'm living now. I told him that I live farther down the street. He expressed incredulity that I'd never stopped by. I pointed out that, every time I see him running on our street (about weekly), I wave, and he never waves back. "Well," he said, "I don't like people." (Which, dude, he loves people. Maybe a little too much.) He flashed his chocolaty-charming smile and drove away.
He's never once noticed me when I've tried to get his attention as we pass each other in the street. Until he saw me walking where people aren't supposed to be walking.
Just, I dunno, interesting.
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8 comments:
I can't pinpoint exactly why, but this whole post is the best story I've heard in a while. I just love it.
You sound a lot like my sister, Lori. You nonconventional, non-path-walker, you.
I love thinking of the boys, thinking of you being lost. And then that guy, maybe wondering if you're homeless or a little bit nuts for offroading...
The perfect story.
Ha! I think all the time "Gosh, Rachel is a lot like [my little sister] Jean"! Especially that birthday post you did for Lori. Totally something she would do! Maybe I'll bring her to Portland someday, and you guys can hang out.
It was a cool walk. Especially the see-saw. Sooooo fun!
Yeah, it's hard to say what more there is to say except, well, interesting indeed. It's really rad that you've been walking back there. I need to walk there more myself!
Very weird comment. "I don't like people." And then he drives off? It sheds just a wee bit more light on the situation, though in what way I'm not sure!
Yes, you do! It's not a redwood forest or anything, but there are all kinds of fun surprises. I also want to explore the woods just across Pierceton Road from Lancer field. They look thicker. There are also some cool-looking patches of trees farther down Pierceton Road that have piqued my interest.
I think the weirdest part is that, though he teased me about never stopping by, he didn't actually invite me to stop by. So, now that he knows that we're neighbors, I wonder if he will. You know that feeling you get when you don't know if someone is interested in you as a person and wants to know who you are or if he's just really charming and doesn't give a rip? Yeah, always got that from him. He always acts super excited to see me when we bump into each other. But ... you know.
So, we'll see. And I'll let you know.
Yeah....yeah. Charming people worry me. Unless they have no idea that they're charming. Like little kids or old people or something. But people who know that they're charming...I get worried. Of course I can be one of those people myself, which is part of the reason I get worried! Because I know from the inside that it can be a smokescreen. Or, it can also be really genuine. And it can be dang hard to figure out which is which.
Interesting about the whole stopping by thing. You should just do it! Just stop by. You could try the tray of brownies or plate of cookies approach. You never know what might happen. I wish that I'd have stopped by people's houses more often in this town, brought cookies or pies or whatever, but it's taken me this whole first year to feel like I'm not the new person. We could start a plate-of-cookies-to-the-neighbors revolution and see what happened.
Charming people worry me too. One never can know where one stands with them (well, I never can know where I stand with them anyway). For better or worse, I've never really mastered being charming.
And about those cookies: great idea. Clearly, you are far more extroverted than I.
Yes, I love this post too. Walking is the woods is about the greatest thing.
Having little boys yell to you to make sure you're okay is another good thing. And then scurrying away.
People can never seem to understand why I go to movies by myself, eat meals in restaurants with only a book to keep me company, why I climb trees in parks and leave trails and wander country roads until I am deliciously lost and have to find myself again.
I don't understand why they don't try it themselves. I think it has something to do with the reasoning that a pack of their friends are not doing it, ergo it must not be fun.
*shrug*
Whatever.
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