Creative Writing

There's a guy sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper. His eyes look up from the page, appearing to be waiting for someone. I watch as I see him twist his wedding ring on his finger. He has the most beautiful bouquet of flowers set beside him. The flowers brighter than the sun, he looked at them and then at his watch. A woman approaches him, her eyes full of sadness. She collapses onto the bench and begins to cry. His face fills with confusion and sets the roses aside. He hugs her close, his face full of concern. He strokes her hair and whispers into her ear. Her face lifts, and I can see the hurt in her eyes. The way he trapped her hands and kissed them made my heart flutter. Speaking quietly, the woman's eyes filing with tears, she started to speak. I studied his face as he talked, his face filled with disbelief. A glistening tear rolled from his face. He was holding in the tears and she grabbed his hand and stroked it. I could make out the words, "It will be okay, we'll get through this together," come form her lips. All at once, he took a breath, handed his wife the flowers, and started to walk away. I observed from a distance but now they were close enough to listen in on.

She spoke quite loudly at this point. "Chris you can't avoid this, we need to talk about this." He tousled his hair with his hand and continued to walk away. "Chris--CHRIS," she yelled and he immediately stopped in his tracks. "I loved her too, Chris," she spoke quietly. "I felt as though she was my mother too. You need to be with your family in this rough time." Her voice cracked as she struggled to talk. He continued to walk until I couldn't see him anymore.

The woman ink down on the bench and put her face into her hands. I couldn't help it, I rushed to her side and told her how sorry I was for her. She blubbered the whole story to me. How his mother was doing so well with chemotherapy, how this morning she passed away suddenly, and how the hospital called her 10 minutes before she was to go meet Chris in the park for lunch. All I could do was sit and comfort her. We sat in silence for a while and then she suddenly took a deep breath. She spoke softly to me, "Thank you for listening and just being here for me, I'm Julia by the way." We talked for a long time and I realized how much she needed someone there to support her in her ups and downs besides her husband. I was determined to be that person for her. There's always going to be a difficult bump in the road and we all need at least one person to be there for us. That is one thing in life that no one can teach you until you experience it for yourself. Until it's you that realizes that there is a person in your life that needs someone.