9 kilometers

It's cold out, but when I'm walking, I don't notice.

I like to walk.

To walk and to count.

At school I learned that 1 kilometer is the same as 1,000 meters.

So then 9 kilometers is 9,000 meters: one nine and three zeros, walking in single file.

My teacher said that it takes around 1,600 steps to walk 1 kilometer…

so 9 kilometers would be almost 15,000 steps. So many!

But I think it's fewer, because I also look for shortcuts, and I skip and leap.

How many skips would it take to travel 1 kilometer?

There are times when I've wanted to count my steps.

But then the barking of the dogs, the songs of the chucao birds, or the buzzing of the grasshoppers jumbles all my numbers.

It's easier to count butterflies. One day I saw 15. White, yellow, and orange ones. And 10 lizards, green and purple ones!

I read in a book once that a snail can travel 5 meters in 1 hour.

That means it would need more than 70 days to travel 9 kilometers.

For a puma, it would take barely 7 minutes to go 9 kilometers.

For a ray of light, much less time than the blink of an eye.

But I am not a snail, or a puma, or a ray of light.

so I keep walking.

9 kilometers is almost 15,000 steps.

Maybe more, because there are days when 9 kilometers feels like a stone inside a worn-out shoe.

Other days, however, the steps feel as sweet as a handful of blackberries or a ripe apple, and they pass as quickly as a shadow.

"What fits in 9 kilometers?" my teacher asked me one day.

"Enormous things," I answered.

"The 10 largest buildings in the world.

30 gigantic aircraft carriers…"

"...90 football felds!"

And also many little things, the kind that can't be counted with numbers.

9 kilometers is 9,000 meters, which is a nine and three zeros.

9 kilometers is almost 15,000 steps. Maybe more, because our legs are short…

… but our steps are always enough for us to arrive.