Baggage

[potential excerpt from something potentially in the works]

Thunder rumbles in the sky as the trees sway back and forth. The gust is not quite as heavy as I would have imagined, but when you're carrying as much on your shoulders as I am, no wind is a good wind.  The narrow path winds in the dark, the piercing white lighting filtering in the clouds is the only visual reminder that there is, in fact, ground in front of me.

Do I run? Walk? Has anybody even noticed?  Nobody seems to be looking for me, but I cover my face with my arm anyways as I make my way through the campus.  I suppose running won't get me anywhere faster if I have no destination.

Rewind:  How did I get here?  Even I don't know that.

My breath is heavy, a light cloud forms every time I exhale.  It's not very often it storms like this in the winter. I breathe out slowly, to watch the cloud rise up into the storm. No, nobody is following me. They haven't seemed to notice that I am carrying a backpack that doesn't belong to me. I don't know what's in there, but I know that it's no worse off with than with the person I took it from. I know it was wrong. But hunger makes you do crazy things sometimes. Or maybe it was a spastic vision?  I've still got time to work on my excuses, but for now I better just keep on moving.

I don't regret stealing this, anything to leave my backpack for somebody else to carry around.  I can't stand the weight on my shoulders anymore.  I would much rather carry somebody else's load than my own. School wasn't what I thought it would be. You don't learn anything for free.  Every lesson comes with a price. But every fee doesn't promise a lesson.  And there's not always a moral to the story.