“All right, I’m almost ready,” Lake said, carefully slipping a sneaker on over her wrapped ankle.
Aubrey looked doubtful. “Are you sure you want to go for a walk? You’re not overworking your ankle or anything?”
“I’m fine,” Lake said, standing up and taking a few steps. “The wrap really helps.”
“Okay,” Aubrey shrugged. She wasn’t going to argue. It was just a quick walk around the neighborhood, anyway.
They went outside, and Lake shivered.
“You want to go back and get a scarf? Like I told you to?”
Lake just laughed. “No, I’m good. I just love weather like this! Cool, misty, still. There is so much mystery and promise in weather like this.”
Aubrey chuckled. “You are so weird.”
They set off around the corner, walking a little slower than they usually did because of Lake’s injured ankle.
“So, how’s online grad school going?” Lake asked.
“It’s fine,” Aubrey sighed. “It took one of the professors fifteen minutes to figure out the new video-conference system. But once he did, he was fine. How’s work?”
Lake shook her head. “Why am I in IT again? We had five days to get everyone set up for working from home. That means hardware, that means networking, that means writing documentation no one is going to read. And, all that on a busted foot, so, fun times.” Lake took a deep breath. “That’s why I really needed this walk. Get away from my computer for a few minutes. If I get one more email asking how to connect to the company’s remote VPN, I’m just going to email back the documentation with some kind of ‘eff you’ GIF.”
They turned another street corner, and passed a middle-aged woman who looked like she was ready to power-walk; athletic jacket and leggings, fancy running shoes, and a sour look on her face. They smiled politely, and she nodded curtly back.
Lake and Aubrey remained quiet until they were away from the woman before speaking again.
“I’ll never understand people who jog, or whatever,” Lake murmured. “You never see a happy jogger, and from what I’ve heard, they all hate it too, for the most part.”
“I think they like feeling superior, somehow,” Aubrey said, looking back and noticing the woman was joined with someone who could be her twin, at least from this distance. They were walking in the same direction as Aubrey and Lake, at a pretty good clip.
“Like, ‘Hey, I’m a jogger. I care about my health, and have the resources to waste time running for no reason,’” Lake quipped.
“Exactly.”
“I just don’t get people, sometimes,” Lake sighed. “Why do so many only seem to care about themselves? I mean, yeah, basic human condition, wanting to stay alive and have a nice life, but so many people don’t care if their nice life hurts other people. It’s always more, bigger, faster.”
“Dunno,” Aubrey said, glancing back again. The women were a lot closer, and gaining on them. “I’m studying physics to stay away from all that human messiness. You should ask a psychologist. Or a philosopher. Or something.”
“Wasn’t your last girlfriend studying philosophy?”
“Yeah, talk about messy.”
Lake hummed in agreement before changing the subject. The women were right behind them now, and she didn’t want to talk about anything too personal.
“Do you think it’s going to warm up this afternoon?” she asked, ignoring the slight cough from behind them.
“I don’t know,” Aubrey said, knowing why Lake had changed the subject. “I think it’s supposed to get a lot warmer later this week.”
“That’ll be nice. I am so ready for winter to be over.”
“I know. But then, of course, it’s going to get way too hot.”
They kept going, enjoying the weather and trying to ignore the continued coughing from behind them. They did pick up their speed a little, mostly to try and get away from the people behind them.
Aubrey noticed the man walking toward them first. “Should we swing out into the bike lane, try to give everyone more space?” she asked, looking around at the street for traffic. It was quiet, no cars or bikes in sight.
“Probably,” Lake agreed, veering toward the bit of grass next to the sidewalk and the road.
Suddenly, the two women were right there, passing them in the bike lane. Lake narrowed her eyes, but didn’t say anything, staying on the sidewalk.
“Should we still walk in the street?” Aubrey asked, her gaze flicking between the women speed-walking away from them, and the man taking his time towards them.
“Yeah, probably,” Lake muttered.
They swung out into the bike lane, nodding in acknowledgment as they passed the man. As they climbed back onto the sidewalk, Lake shook her head, staring at the retreating backs of the power-walkers.
“Can you believe them? Coughing like that, to get us to go faster or move out of the way?”
“Is that what they were doing?” Aubrey asked, surprised. “I just figured they were hacking like that because they were sick or something.”
“No, I’m pretty sure it was at us,” Lake mused. “I didn’t hear anything until they had been behind us for a while.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” Lake replied, her stare turning into a glare. “It’s not like they can be mad that we are taking up the whole sidewalk, not walking single file, because they aren’t either. They could have just walked around us, instead of whatever passive-aggressive crap that was.”
“See? Physics. You don’t have to deal with people being people when you do a lot of math all day.”
Lake just laughed, her sour mood dissipating like the mist around them. “Very true.” She paused, a sly smile spreading across her face. “I am going to tweet about this later, though.”
© The Lightning Tower, 2020