More Like a Sprint

I slammed the door shut and checked my watch. It was 3:00 AM sharp and I was proud of it. I gave myself a silent fist pump of victory, and began jogging out of my driveway and up the hill.

The early morning breeze was always a delight after being curled up in cushy blankets and getting all sweaty. I tied my thick hair up in a messy ponytail and felt the dum, dum, dum of my feet on the cement as I steadied my breath and trudged forward.

“Uh, hey.”

I whipped my head around defensively. I was only a block into my morning jog and I was already being interrupted? I looked around, but I only saw the city stretching out beneath me.

“Uh, I’m over here.”

I turned over my right shoulder cautiously. A translucent man was standing next to me, looking curious but timid. I jumped backwards.

“Agh! Who are you?” I screeched. The man took a reassuring step towards me, hand out, palms up. On his face was a warm and gentle smile.

“I’m sorry to sneak up on you like that; my name’s Philip.” he said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I’m Avery.” I said, loosening up. I didn’t know why I wasn’t running for my life; wasn’t that the basic human instinct after seeing a ghost? Not that I’d ever known anybody who had actually seen a ghost before, but…

“I like to watch you run. You’re really graceful on those tennis shoes of yours, you know? I always wanted to join you, but I never got the chance to.” he said nostalgically, as if reminiscing on all the times that he had watched me speed past. I laughed.

“What makes you join me now?” I ask. He looks down at his own worn out sneakers, laces untied.

“My soul is fading away today. I can feel it. I wanted to run one last time.” he said sadly. I didn’t know how to reply. I simply watched as he bent down to tie his laces, hair ruffled and dirty. When he finally stood up again, he looked a little chipper.

I started jogging at a slower speed, just in case Philip was slower than me. But I didn’t need to worry, apparently, because he passed me after just a few steps. I was impressed; the hills here were steeper than in the other cities, and many people would struggle to keep up their breathing. I began to get faster until I was in line with my new jogging buddy.

“So,” I said, blowing wisps of hair off of my sweaty forehead. “You’re like Casper.”

“What?” he asked, turning his head to look at me. A hint of a smile danced on his lips.

“Casper,” I said, chuckling as we both sped up. I paused, catching her breath. “The friendly ghost. You’ve never heard of him?”

“Nope.” he said, turning his head to look at the road as we ran over a pedestrian crossing. “But I am a friendly ghost.”

“I can see that.” I said with a grin, turning to look at him. He huffed and puffed, obviously still unused to running, despite his short-lived impressiveness.

“You know,” he said between gasps. I slowed down a bit so that we could both catch their breath. “I always thought that you had amazing stamina.”

“Practice makes perfect.” I said. “I’ve been on these morning jogs every day since I was twenty-one.”

There was a comfortable silence for some time as we ran another mile, almost reaching her daily destination. The sky was still a cobalt blue, and when I checked my watch, it was still only 4:00 AM. I cocked my head up as the gray clouds scurried across the sky above our heads.

“We’re almost there.”

We turned a corner and rounded into a park. There was a broken metal gate circling the grassy hills. I climbed in through a hole near the far right corner of the fence, and Philip followed close behind.

“Up there on the highest hill.” I said. “That’s my favorite spot.”

I turned around to look at him, but he had become less visible since we had met. I felt my heart drop as he flitted unstably up to my side. This ghostly man that I knew barely anything of had caught my eye and touched my heart, and I was scared of letting him go.

I didn’t want to look at him any more than I needed to, so I plastered on a grin.

“Race you.”

We both took off in a heated race to the top of the hill. I flopped onto the fresh, sharp grass victoriously. Philip dropped to his knees beside me. I turned to look at him.

“I won.”

“I know,” he said, chuckling. I held out my hand and he took it. Even though I couldn’t feel him, I pretended to squeeze it. He looked down at me, and I imagined how weird I must’ve looked, sweating like a pig and breathing like a dog.

“Thanks for the jog.” I said, smiling genuinely. He flopped onto his back right next to me.

“More like a sprint,” he said, closing his eyes. “But you're welcome. And thanks too.”

We laid there until the sky began turning a light sapphire. I sat up straight, pointing to the horizon beyond the cityscape and the mountains. Philip sat up too, blindly following my lead.

“What is it?” he asked, but the moment his jaw dropped I knew that he saw it too. It was my favorite part of these morning jogs, and it was the part of my day that made the ups and downs of life so much more acceptable; the one constant in life that I could rely on, as long as I had the will to wake up every day at 3:00 AM.

“The sunrise.” I breathed, my hand still on (er, in) his. The beaming light that was the sun climbed up and out from in between the mountains, letting its light scatter onto the now awakening city and everything else around it. The sky around it turned a warm orange and the clouds were outlined in a soft blush as the new day really began.

“This is great.” said Philip, but his voice was withering away along with his soul. I turned to look at his fading outline, and suddenly a surge of anguish rippled through me.

“You should have come earlier.” I said, voice breaking. “We could’ve been such good friends.”

“You know, when I’m wherever I go now…I think I’m gonna do these runs every day.” he said, voice barely a whisper.

“That’s great. And maybe when I get to visit, you’ll have better stamina.” I said, tears beginning to leak. “And we’ll go for a jog together.”

“More like a sprint.” he said, trailing off as the final wisps of his soul melted away.

“More like a sprint.” I agreed, long after he was gone.