Not Today...from about 5 years ago

Not Today

Most days I write until about noon, then go walk, then spend the afternoon researching or interviewing future stories. If I’m in Weatherford, I walk along an old rail bed, the Lake Mineral Wells State Trailway.

I’m fried from five or six hours of writing. And tense. The walk burns that off. Let’s me continue. Reminds me to listen.

Today when I get to the trail parking lot another car is there, bikes stuffed in the back. I walk up to the gate to pay my $5. A lady climbs out of the car.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you know how much it costs to use the trail?”

There’s a sign listing fees, duct taped to a pole, it too a victim of this state’s budget woes.

“$5”

I tell her this.

She’s studying the laminated sign as I walk away down the trail, hoping she and her kid won’t make too much noise.

I hear the young boy’s voice over my shoulder, from their car. “It costs $10?”

I see a deer, cardinals and squirrels. Trees are greening up – getting ready for spring. This town grows quickly. Not many places small children can safely ride bikes, though a greenbelt walkway near Town Creek will solve that soon.

The mother and her son never ride past me on the trail.

I get back to the parking lot after my walk. The car, the mother, the little boy are gone. A mother and her son drove their car out here, bikes piled hopefully in the back. They obeyed the law.

It costs $10.

No bike ride today.

It’s spring break for Weatherford school children this week.

For one little boy, it’s not.