Walter's Enigma

The area left him isolated. Walter couldn’t breathe. There was nothing he could do in order to survive this hell hole of an island. Poverty was everywhere. He was the last man alive. The birds were too goddamn loud. They had a cacophony of ca-cas. Walter hated animals. When he was sixteen, a pigeon pooped on his Lexus car. His girlfriend at the time, Tina, didn’t see what the big deal was.

“All you have to do is just go to a carwash.” That task was done, however, the damage had been done to Walter’s mind. He never trusted animals again; he didn’t even own a pet.

There was a hullabaloo outside. Walter groaned to himself. He didn’t have time for this horseshit. He needed peace and quiet. “What the hell is going on now?”

Opening the door, he witnessed a dog barking angrily while a little girl was crying. A woman was hysterical and yelling, “Get the hell away from us, you mangy mutt!”

None of this made any sense. He lived on a farm, so no neighbors were always nearby.

Becoming impatient, Walter took out his gun and shot it into the sky.

“If you all don’t stop this drama, I will have no choice but to call the police.”

Everyone was silent, even the stubborn mutt—dog. The little girl wiped her tears off of her pristine face. There was a reason.

“The Earth remembers what we forget. It used to resemble harmony, peace, joy, and laughter. Now, we have forgotten about all of that and have replaced it with chaos, confusion, sadness, and grief. We can no longer take Mother Nature, Gaia, or whatever you want to call Earth, for granted anymore! We can be better than this people.”

Suddenly, the distressed woman spoke up. “I’m so sorry sir. We just were walking by your home and this dog, right out of nowhere, started attacking my daughter and I. Pardon my French, but we were scared shitless.”

Walter held up his hand to talk. “What does that have to do with the speech I gave about Earth? Also, who are you?”

“My name is Karen Halle. I came from the Director’s Guild of Los Angeles, and I flew on a plane to Iowa to escape—what you would call—the chaos and confusion of the city, to be at peace with myself and my daughter. Not that it defines who I am, I’m a single mother working two jobs.”

“What’s your daughter’s name?”

“Her name is Jennifer.”

Walter crouched down to Jennifer’s level. “How old are you, Jennifer?”

“I’m seven. I don’t know your name though.”

“It’s Walter.”

“Walter.”

He glanced up at Karen Halle. “Yes?”

“Would it be alright with you to explain how the world became so sad and hideous?”

“I don’t think that would be an appropriate conversation to have in front of your child.”

“I understand. Sweetie, why don’t you go play with your jump rope? I’m going to have a little chat with Mr. Walter.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Jennifer ran as fast as a rabbit.

“So where do we start?”

“We can start on my front porch.”

Karen took a moment to look at the home. She had been so distressed before that she didn’t realize that his home looked…beautiful. There were brown rocking chairs behind vibrant, colorful flowers. The Sun hit every window perfectly. There was also green shingles between the clean windows. Hopefully, the inside would look pretty as well.

The two adults sat down, closely, but not enough for intimate contact.

“As I was saying, the Earth remembers what we forget. We have always taken things for granted: money, health, sight, hearing, intelligence, and even living in homes. You could blame it on politics, but that’s just taking the easy way out. Earth has been in trouble long before politics became involved; they’re only a portion of the pie.”

Karen was confused. “What do you mean by that?”

“The Earth goes into cycles every decade. That’s why we can never truly have peace on this planet. There’s always going to be a war going on, a hurricane, or some other tragedy that shakes up a person’s foundation to the core. We have forgotten to stay calm in the eye of the storm.”

“So it’s like when a person suffers from anxiety and they forget to breathe slow, deep breaths to calm theirselves down.”

“Exactly.”

The grass was blowing gently along with the vulnerable trees. Another silent moment happened between Walter and Karen. They also heard the sound of Jennifer playing jump rope by herself. Walter was the one to break the silence again first.

“Do you want to know how we can make people on Earth remember what they have forgotten?”

“Start a movement.”

“That, and contribute to the community.”

“It won’t be easy. It seems that everyone hates each other these days.”

Walter put his hand on top of Karen’s. She felt that it was odd, but at the same time, she didn’t move away.

“That’s why kindness matters. I don’t know what kind of year 2026 will be, but I know that we can collaborate together with Mother Nature. I’ve always been passionate about the environment.”

Karen agreed with Walter. “It does. 2020, the year of the pandemic, made everyone feel exhausted but liberated at the same time. We can work together.”

Zachary was looking outside of his telescope. He was shocked and disgusted. How could his curmudgeon neighbor be at peace with his company? Being eleven years old wasn’t lost on him, but he felt he deserved a lot of respect. No, scratch that. He deserved respect. Period. Then Zachary realized he was not only being unfair towards Walter, but to himself. He just needed to have patience. There was no way in hell that anything bad was going to happen to him.

His belief in God allowed him to always be safe inside of his heart. His parents weren’t home. He decided to sneak out of the house to talk to Walter.

Once Zachary was outside, he heard a small voice.

“Excuse me.”

He looked down and saw a little girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a worn teddy bear.

“Hey. Where’s your mother?”

“Talking to our neighbor Walter.”

“That’s where I’m heading.”

“I’m Jennifer.”

“Zachary.”

They both shook each other’s hands.

The two kids held hands together, walking towards the serious adults.

“Zachary! What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see what you all were talking about.”

Walter gathered his thoughts patiently. “Alright, we might as well include the both of you young ones. Karen and I were talking about what the Earth has forgotten and how to get its memory back.

“We could plant crops and have everything grow into a beautiful garden,” Zachary said.

Karen spoke up. “That would take a lot of work. We would need hoes, seeds, and lots of irrigation. Walter’s house is beautiful, but because of what Earth went through these past two decades, it’s very barren. Plus, we’re on an island. You can’t grow plants there.”

Zachary frowned. “So what are we supposed to do then? Give up?”

“No.” Walter stood up on his cane slowly. “We form a communion together. Just the four of us. The government has never cared about Earth, so we’ll make them care by creating a healthy environment for ourselves.”

“Agreed.” Everyone was satisfied that they were going to make a difference.