Not This Night

The rain begins its assault against the exposed skin of my face. Rolling down in rivulets sending shivers of calm and comfort shooting throughout my entire being.

It eases my frenzied thoughts. My feet below me create a hypnotic rhythm that elicits an exhilarating calm.

Thrump. Drump.

Thrump. Drump.

My head down, I watch as my feet ruthlessly tear open the water beneath causing a wave of chaos in their wake.

Splish. Splash.

Splish. Splash.

I am suddenly jolted by the force of what feels like a freight train on my shoulder..

“Hey! Watch it old man!” a young man's voice fills the empty street with feigned offense as he passes by.

I stop. Ripped away from the safe meditative reality I had created for myself this night.

I turn to face my accuser, raising my head to observe the world that surrounds me again.

Suddenly out of its stale and drowsy lair I feel my calm slip away into the darkness of the night.

A pity. Such attractive young men, yet such hideous personalities.

I play dumb as I star at these naive creatures to see what move they would make next.

I watch as they shift uncomfortably with a sliver of regret as my eyes continue to bore into them. These kids these days have no self control whatsoever.

“Look at him. He can’t even talk, bro.” the shorter one gives a nervous laugh.

“Come closer to me.” I keep my voice calm, soothing.

The taller boy blurts out, “No way Boomer, I don’t think so. You probably I have covid or something.” His was the same voice that told me to ‘watch it’ but moments ago.. But now his tenor fell flat, devoid of the excitement that filled him at what he thought was a clever trick.

“You gentlemen look like you may be in need.” I reach into the depths of my raincoat, pull out my wallet and display its contents. I watch in amusement as their eyes bulge with excitement when they take in a stack of green.

“No raincoats. No umbrellas…” I plunge on… “perhaps you boys could use some help.” I can barely contain my smile as they quickly approach me.

I spring the wallet back toward me as if I’m about to pull the cash from my wallet, only to pull out instead my trusty K-bar from the dark void of my raincoat.

Poor naive fools didn’t even know what hit them before they were seething on the concrete, red with their agony and what surely was regret before darkness took over their deficient souls.

I really should stop carrying these tools with me when I go for these walks. It really does defeat the purpose of keeping the beast within me at bay during these meditation walks. But, I just cannot seem to control myself.

No matter. I’ve done the world a favor. Not the first, nor will it be the last, surely.

I wander all night, in my vision– in my minds-eye, I briefly remind myself of what must be done– tonight, last night and perhaps even tomorrow night.

Damn kids these days.

I look down at my feet again.

Thrump. Drump.

Thrump. Drump.

I watch the rhythm of my feet dance along the watery concrete. A tiny trickle of excitement still reverberates through my veins.

Splish. Splash.

Splish. Splash.