A Walk in the Woods on a Rainy Day

Bring your umbrellas

A Walk in the Woods on a Rainy Day (Version 1)

“No need to run like a rabbit, the tortoise always wins in the end.” Those were the last words I ever said to my wife, Jenny. I never saw her again while I was alive. She disappeared deep into the woods, never to be found.  The TV cameras and screaming reporters wove macabre scenarios as the search party came up empty. The most popular was, I slit her throat and burned her alive.  I was interviewed, interrogated, accused of murdering her, and eventually arrested. No one believed my story. They said my version was a fantasy, conjured up by a guilt-ridden mind.  I claimed she disappeared before my eyes as she ran into a glowing light. I ran after her, but the light went out, and I stood there alone. I relive that moment over and over, only to realize the outcome would always remain the same.  Without any evidence, but only conjecture, they convicted me of her murder and sentenced me to be executed for my heinous crime.

 As Jenny would say, she loved frolicking in the woods. We loved playing the game of ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’.  She would run as I slowly tried to catch up with her. When I caught her, we would wrestle each other and make passionate love. That last time, I never caught up to her; she got swallowed up by that damn white light. That day, the reason for my living disappeared and left me standing alone to wallow in my grief and despair.

I didn’t give a damn what they did to me. I loved Jenny with all my heart and soul, more than life itself. Life without her was meaningless, and the world became gray and soulless. I looked forward to my execution; it would release me from the pain of her absence.

I counted the days with empty joy to my execution. My misery would end. I clung to the belief that heaven existed, and Jenny would be there waiting for me. I knew I was deluding myself, but it was a wonderful delusion. It kept me from killing myself with a makeshift shiv. Suicide would be a mortal sin, which would ban me from heaven. I couldn’t take the chance that my delusion wasn’t a delusion and that heaven was real.

The day of my execution was finally at hand. My suffering of two years without her was finally coming to an end. My last meal, a burger and fries, was delicious. The priest gave me my last rites, and as I walked to the death chamber, I couldn’t help but smile. They strapped me to a gurney and administered the first dose of the death concoction. It was a sedative to calm me into death. As I fell into slumber, I found myself in the woods. It was raining, but an umbrella kept the rain away. I saw the light and a silhouette of my beloved walking towards me. But instead of her embrace, I found myself being revived. My execution was stayed by the governor by a last-ditch appeal by human rights activists. I screamed and demanded to die.  I was uncontrollable, and they shot sedatives into me again, but this time, I only saw pitch-black night.

…..

I had to wait another year until all the appeals were denied. It would have dragged out longer if I hadn’t insisted; I wanted the execution to take place. It took all my willpower not to kill myself. I didn’t care if it was just a dream or not; I chose to believe it was real. My death day finally arrived. This dead man walking walked happily to his death.

This time, there was no stay, and as they started killing me, I found myself walking in the woods. It was raining, and there she was. Jenny hugged me and said,

“What took you so long?”

 

 

Author's Note

let it rip