One guy, one girl

One guy, one girl, sitting on a park bench. Your average city day, bright and cloudless with the distant sound of honking horns mixed with chirping birds. Pigeons at their feet, picking at bread crumbs the girl tosses to them from a used plastic sandwich bag, and this is as close to alone that these two could possibly be. A block away, a half-naked supermodel on a billboard tries to sell… something, and the guy is wearing his best black suit and tie. The girl in a white cotton dress, the two look like a still frame from a batch of old photographs. The guy sits far from the girl, nearly pushed against the railing at the edge of the bench and it’s been almost a year since they’ve last met. It was a miracle he was able to find her here. The guy finally gains the courage to scoot closer and closer until after ten minutes he finally puts his arm over her shoulder. The girl looks away, focused on some tree or bird, distant the way you’d imagine the working mind to be. The guy, he looks at the side of her face and says, “Why did you leave?” And the girl smiles slowly, gently, radiating but not ecstatic. She slowly turns her head, eyes still focused on the horizon until she is forced to look his way. “Why did you leave?’ he says, “We had it all planned out.” The smile fades from her face, and she shyly looks away, a single tear glistening down her pretty face. Again the man tries, “I talked to your dad the other day. We talked for hours about everything. He couldn’t tell me why you left either.” The girl, she throws another handful of bread to the pigeons pecking at their feet. A father walks by, following his son closely behind. The kid is on a tricycle, yet the father has his hands on the child’s hips. Another toss, another smile, another glimpse into nothingness. The man, he becomes frustrated, and on the verge of tears pulls out a tiny box containing a ring. He tells the girl, “I still love you, and always will, I don’t know why you left or if I had anything to do with it. One morning I arrived at your door and you were gone.” The girl looks over, speechless with the smile getting bigger, still soft and gentle. The man pops the ring box open and holds the contents in his hand. “You’re still my world and I’d follow you anywhere. Please… show me what to do.” And the girl moves in to kiss him, her wet lips inching closer to his own.

And in the middle of the city, on a park bench a million miles from nowhere, a guy sits with his head in his hands, alone and crying pigeons pecking at breadcrumbs on the sidewalk.