Walk

"Walk" by Lisa Rae Winant

12 x 24 / oil on panel

Taken from http://lisaraewinant.blogspot.com/

“Bernie, deliver this for me to the grouchy Rick James, lovey.”

            A well-built young man in the prime of his life and physical ability, Bernie Marshall dropped his carrying bag carefully and packed up Mrs. Butterworth’s cases of maple syrup. Without a word or any gesture, Bernie lifted up the already heavy sack of deliveries, picked up his pay, and continued onward. 

Bernie was the mute and blind village delivery man of his native Neverland Ranch. Villagers knew that he was a trustworthy and hardworking individual despite never having any true exchange. Bernie was shy in nature who cared for his community, and his abnormal abilities to memorize delivery routes and inhuman strength made him the only delivery man of Neverland Ranch.

His parents abandoned him near the muddy banks of the Wishkah River in Aberdeen, Washington when he was a preteen after an automobile accident had killed his family. He learned life the hard way with three strikes against him: no voice, no sight, and no support system to call (or in this case, recognize as) “family” or “friends.”

Even though people may have declared him “out,” Bernie did what he could only do: struggle to survive. Bernie marched over the depression, loneliness, silence, and the darkness, one delivery at a time. His first deed was at first a prank orchestrated by a local youth group, who requested him to deliver them a car. The task was pressured on Bernie, for he literally could not say “no.” The leader of the group led Bernie to the vehicle: an orange and black-striped 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge, the muscle car of all muscle cars.

“C’mon now, Ray Charles! Get closer to it and try to lift the fucker!” the leader shouted.

The leader’s lackeys encouraged a crowd of other kids to watch Bernie attempt to lift “The Judge.” Bernie felt his way around the front of the car, bent his scraped knees, gripped all of his fingers underneath the front of the vehicle, and exerted all of his might in one herculean uplift. The scrawny mute and blind preteen managed to flip over the vehicle, leaving all bystanders slack-jawed and stunned. Word of his feat broke out like a nuke throughout the small town of Aberdeen as footage of the stunt was posted online. Bernie was becoming a popular figure in a matter of fifteen minutes.

Mobs of people rushed from all angles to see him replicate the stunt. The overwhelming sounds of cars screeching and people screaming drove the poor kid out of his mind. With no way of handling social situations, Bernie fought off the crowd physically and began smashing various objects, including lifting sizable objects into the crowd. After a one-man massacre, Bernie ran away from the disaster area that was Aberdeen and headed down south to California, where he was able to calm his nerve in a more rural surrounding with fewer people and aid whoever in need.