The Park

The damn birds… the incessant cooing. If Patty could think of a better punishment… she would.

She could not forget her little Katie’s laughter from the back seat. Her daughter, so bright and joyful.

They had been laughing about something. Try though she did, she could never recall what.

The pigeons filled the road ahead, and she slowed through the intersection as the flock took flight… filling the air and blocking her view ahead.

The car had slowed to almost a stop, but the maintenance truck— it had traveled in the fastest slow motion she had ever known.

She only saw it briefly as her daughter screamed, then went quiet.

They had been on their way to the park… this park… and now.

Now she comes here every day.
She sits on this bench—the very bench she and Katie would sit on.
This is the only way she can remember.

The buttery aroma of the popcorn drifts about the park as she sits, immobile and heartbroken.

Her hand, deep in the bag, now empty. The constant ring of the popcorn vendor’s popper, comforting and absurdly invasive at the same time.

The child’s laughter from the playground behind her always grated on her.

She wanted to go over and tell them to go home, or go somewhere else—she didn’t care where. She just needed them gone.

Ugh… her back still feels stiff. She rotated her head about her neck, but with no real relief.

The jogger—what was her name… Sarah? Sarah… she knows the story, and she tries to comfort Patty each day.

Today was no exception, the pigeons pecking at her feet, shooed away by Sarah.

Sarah sat next to Patty, holding her hand in one of hers, the other around her wrist, as if to reinforce that she would steady her if needed.

Sarah came and went, but today she went to the popcorn stand. A bit unusual for the health nut Sarah was, but not unprecedented.

Laughter.

“Ugh…”

Children laughing no longer seemed a blessing.

Just go… away…

She looked toward the playground. The laughter continued.

She could not see the child, and an adult was nowhere to be seen.

She sounds too much like Katie… she needs to go…

Patty struggled—almost didn’t—but finally decided to do something… anything…

She crossed the green grass toward the park.

The laughter of the little girl seemed to come from somewhere behind the slide.

The hard, cold metal of the slide turned her stomach a little.

She can’t shake the twisted metal of the car in the aftermath of the wreck.

She stepped into the playground, the slide directly in front of her.

Some toy, reaching up out of the sand, punctured her foot.

“Her bare foot?” she thought as she twisted through the fall, unable to stop the rushing corner of the hard metal slide.

Her head… she could feel it bounce off the corner, and her body went limp moments before the world faded to black.

Her eyes slowly opened. Her angel, her lovely little angel Katie, met her with a bright smile. Katie giggled with joy. A nurse—her name tag… Sarah—held her wrist.

Sarah looked down at Patty.

“Katie has been here every day with popcorn. Every day for six weeks since the accident. We are so glad you pulled through. Welcome back, Patty.”