A muffled padding, continuous, ongoing for a little while now. The sound a smooth, steady beat; a calming rhythm that sits in, engraves itself deep into the mind, so that when one is without it they feel off, restless until it can begin once again.
That was how she felt every time she ran. The rhythm calmed her, made her feel at peace. She didn't run, as some thought, to escape anything, or to get anywhere either. She ran to feel the beat; whether it was against cement, sand, grass, or even crunching in snow, she didn't care....though she did prefer asphalt. The muffled thumps flowed better than crunches, taps, or silent pads of the others. Some had argued that if she wanted a beat, than she should get into music. But no, it was not the same; not even close.
She sighed and slowed down her pace to a walk to catch her breath, and clasped her hands behind her head as she continued to think. She had been working on a paper for her class, but she couldn't concentrate; she needed to get outside, go for a run, to feel the beat to clear her mind. Her focus now back on the paper, she suddenly had a thought and pulled out a small notepad from her pocket and jotted down a transition from her final fact to her conclusion, one of the parts she was stuck on. She gave a secret smile, one only for herself. Who needs music when the beat of movement is so much more efficient?
She finished and slipped it back in her pocket, clipping the small travel pen onto her shirt before taking off again in a jog to cover the last of the distance to her front door. Unbenounced to her, two sets of parental eyes, one worried, the other casual, were watching her in her own version of musing.
"I'm still worried about her." the feminine voice that belonged to the owner of the worried set of eyes commented gently.
A firm yet soft, reassuring arm wrapped around the worried mother's shoulders, and a relaxed voice to match the second set of eyes, "Don't."
"But I can't help but be." was her rebuttal, and the husband simply chuckled and turned her from the window and said "It's nothing to worry about, it's just what she does." and kissed her forehead to keep any more comments out of the air. He knew why their daughter was like this, as he had the same strange habits when he was younger. He just hoped she didn't grow out of hers, as he truly missed his from his youth, and regretted the absence.
The girl came in through the door and skipped stairs straight up and into her room, pulling off her slightly damp shirt and sitting at her desk in a tank top to scribble down another piece to the puzzle that was her homework. Another puzzle worked itself out as she finished writing down the answer to the first and soon enough she had the whole thing planned out. She smiled again as she sat back and pulled her hair out from its encasement in a scrunchie and ran her fingers through it. Now, to the math problems....
