As Caroline Bingley once noted (albeit with subversive reasons) as she asked Elizabeth Bennet to walk gracefully with her in circles around the room, a walking companion is a delight. But unlike what Darcy thinks, walking companions are good for more than just the two reasons of sharing a confidence, or having men admire your physique and grace. Walking companions are good for keeping you company and making sure that each of the steps you take on familiar or unfamiliar ground is taken with a word on your lips, a remark in your ear, or an intriguing contemplation bubbling in your mind.

My walking companions of choice today were Milton and Tessie of Middlesex - a book I started months ago, picked up again a couple days ago, re-started on the T moments ago, and continued to read on the walk home. Once I emerged from the subterranean tunnels of the T, my feet knew to retrace the same path along the brick sidewalk that I have walked for the past 4 years from the T station, leaving me free to walk home with my nose buried in the Kindle, glancing up occasionally only to address the Spare Change News man in front of ABP, or to brush aside a wisp of hair that had fallen, obstructing my view.

And on that short walk home, Milton told me about how he had enlisted in the Navy and how he had been appointed to be a Signalman. Desdemona passed away with gravitas and flair, and Tessie whispered in confidence to me that she made up her mind to leave her proper, prim, priestly fiancee for the rebellious, wandering, tortured lover of sorts named Milton - A second cousin who had tickled her senses alive with his clarinet. And by the time Milton was saved from serving the thirty-eight second life expectancy of a signalman by being enlisted as a cadet, I found that my feet had brought me to my doorfront.

And as I turned the handle of our door, I switched off the Kindle, sad to see my walking companions go away, but content in knowing that Milton would be safe from the war, and Tessie would be waiting for the right man … at least until the next time I picked the Kindle up again to hear their stories once more.