[ WP ] Mundane Monday : Let 's take a walk


 They are not just women, they are not just men, they have no specific skin color or nationality. They are not just good-looking people. They are a specific and very common sort of person that have no name. They never talk without smiling. They lie in hammocks in the tangy evening light to the tune of the locusts' static. They walk past me in groups of three or more with genuine smiles and inexplicable tans. In their wake I only ever seem to hear names. 
 
 
 A bare-footed trio of them throw a frisbee in a triangle in the quad. A passerby throws his backpack on the ground and heads in their direction, hopping on one foot, then the other, trying to rip his own sneakers off. He reacts to the group like a person might react to a large and exciting tv set. Reckless and dog-like. How do they do this? 
 
 
 One of the guys tosses him the frisbee. He's positively thrilled. He practically catches it in his teeth. The girl brushes her hair behind her ear and claps for the disk in a shortstop stance. The new guy lobs it her way and she awkwardly clamps down on it with both palms, alligator style. The guys make introductions in West-Coast-non-committal baritone. We are nowhere near the West Coast. They disappear behind the mossy walls of the library. I adjust my backpack. 
 
 
 The loneliness is never more obvious than when I am walking around campus. These kids are perfectly fine in and with everything. They do n't have opinions about movies. They respond to all questions with cliches. They do not seem to think outside of a ten-foot radius. I feel that no one has ever informed them that they will eventually die. Attractiveness varies, but they all have very white teeth. I bend down to tie my shoe. 
 
 
 I hear a bell and a guy on a bike swerves around me. He does not turn his head to look back and keeps his eyes level. What is he thinking about? Sidewalk, sidewalk, person tying shoe, sidewalk. Is this how he thinks? Does he even have a brain-voice? As he rolls away I wish that he would look at the ground so that I could know that he was thinking about something. It would make me feel less lonely. 
 
 
 Maybe he has nothing to think about. Maybe it is because he's figured it all out already. Maybe they all have. Maybe there is something that I do n't know about that they do. Something with the magnitude of death but in the opposite direction. This concept may be sex. But I've heard of sex. 

