Story-A-Day #413: Tramping

TRAMPING

Days like this come out of nowhere sometimes.  When he left for work, it was a cool, sunny day; one that seemed with of promise and potential.  It seemed like all would end as it began.  By the time he stepped out for lunch, the skies had turned grey, and fat, heavy clumps of snow swirled to the ground.

He ducked around the corner and into the bistro where he found himself chowing back on his bagel and soup with a little more urgency than usual.  He took the coffee to go, and scurried back to his office through the strengthening blizzard.

Three inches had fallen within the first hour, and it didn't look like it would be letting up any time soon.  When he got back to his desk, and shrugged out of his mid-length pea coat, he logged back into his computer terminal.  The weather website was calling for at least a foot of snow.  Not good at all.

He tried to get back to the report he had been working on all morning, but he found himself distracted by the swirling white outside.  When he glanced out his office window, he couldn't even see the building across the street through the swirling eye of the blizzard.

His eyes drifted up to the ticking wall clock above his desk for the third time that hour and he cringed.  It would be a long wait until the end of his shift, and an even longer trip home if this weather kept up.  He buckled on and focused on the report.

His shift finally ended and he made the slow inevitable moves towards heading home.  He pulled on his coat, wrapped his scarf around his neck, and slowly made his way out towards the lobby.  Bracing himself, he stepped out into the blizzard and started the long walk home, tramping through two and three foot snow drifts and feeling exhausted after the first ten minutes.

He stopped to help four cars out of the drifts they had been captured in within the first twenty minutes and then succumbed to the inevitable neon glow.

He stepped into the pub and ordered a pound of chicken wings and a pint of Guinness.  He needed a time out and a little strength before he continued home.  On a day like today, it just made sense.