The music was still blasting, his shoes pushed forward without fear over the dirt path, and the feel of the rain crackling on his raincoat reminded him he was alive. More alive than ever.
He walked for hours without stopping once. He chased the beam of light from his flashlight, which in turn chased a dark horizon.
He stopped to pee. And he figured that since it was night, it’d be funny to pee right there in the middle of the path. Why not?
So he did.
What a freeing feeling… peeing in the rain out in the wild. The dirt ground would soak up the pee, which would go off to mix with life itself and keep on flowing, no pipes, no technical fuss.
That got him thinking about how much humans complicate their lives with the idea of trying to simplify them.
“Hey, buddy!”
A super funny voice spoke. Was it the music?
No. That had been a real voice.
He pulled his pants up and swept the flashlight around him. He felt scared.
What if he was hallucinating?… he’d gone ages without sleeping.
“I’m down here, man!”
The voice came from below.
He shone the light at the ground, and there it was. A small figure was looking up at him with mischievous little eyes.
It wasn’t a cat.
Or a kid.
What was that?
Axel tried to make sense of what was happening. The little thing kept staring at him.
It was a kind of little brownie. Its two pointy little ears poked out from under a red cap, and it wore a jumble of colorful scraps stitched together any old way.
It was holding on to his pants with one of its tiny little hands.
“Hello?” It was the only thing he managed to say. He was freaking out at the whole situation.
“Hello there, leaky, what’s up, champ?”
The urge to laugh came over him. This was the most absurd thing he’d seen in his entire life. The obvious move would’ve been to pinch himself to check whether he was dreaming. But clearly that wasn’t the case, so this had to be really happening.
“Who are you?”
“Well, my name’s Gorgorito and I’m a Magikito.”
The little brownie looked up at him, waiting for his reaction, with a rascally grin that had something of a small child to it.
“A what?” was all Axel managed to come back with.
“A Magikito, dude, what, are you a bit deaf or something?”
That scene was seriously strange. But the kid adjusted to the surprise fast. Deep down it even seemed kind of normal to him. He sat down next to the little fellow so he could talk to him up close and get a better look at him.
His feet were bare, and around his neck hung a little necklace made from an acorn cap. He was all smiles.
“Hey, Gorgorito. That thing you said, I don’t know what it is… a Magikito?”
The little brownie shut one eye and studied him closely with the other.
“Well, if you didn’t know, now you do. So hey, man, you gonna give me a chunk of chocolate?”
He sat there looking at him too. This little critter had a real mysterious vibe to it. He liked him.
“Yeah, I’ve got chocolate… here.”
He grabbed his backpack and started digging around inside. He took out the speaker and turned the volume down a bit. He pulled out a couple of little bags, keeping them under his raincoat so they wouldn’t get wet, and from one of them he took a chocolate bar.
“Chocolaaaateeeee!” the little brownie yelled, snatching the bar out of his hands.
“Hahahaha!” Axel burst out laughing. “Yeah, yeah… chocolate. You eat all you want, buddy.”
He watched the little creature open the bar with delight and get ready to bite into it with its tiny little mouth.
Good thing it was a tiny little thing.
And that’s what went on for a while. The kid watched the little brownie eagerly biting into the dark chocolate bar. It was still raining, but a lot less than before. It was about to let up.
After a good handful of bites, the little fellow spoke again.
“Mmm, lovely little chocolate, thank you kindly, sir.”
“You’re welcome, Gorgorito.”
Axel ate a piece of chocolate too before putting it away. A small bite, no rush. As he swallowed, his throat closed up for a second, as if his body remembered something.
Nonsense. It passed right away.
While he turned off the music and put his stuff back in his backpack, he realized how tired he was.
The truth was he had no desire whatsoever to keep walking now.
He swept the flashlight around him and saw it clearly.
“Where you off to, kiddo?” the little brownie asked him as the kid stepped off the path and headed into the woods.
“I’m sleepy.”
It didn’t take him long to find a perfect spot to set up the tent. He pitched it as best he could and crawled inside with his backpack.
He poked his head out before zipping up. Not a trace of this Gorgorito guy. Funny thing… maybe he really was having hallucinations.
Anyway. He curled up in his sleeping bag and fell asleep for now.
What a day.