The Park

[Chris Wesley]

This is a park. Maybe Mair Park, or something similar. It's a sunny day in the weekend.

[Erinstephen]

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the cicadas were joined in their summertime chorus. The sun had driven the shadows, and the people to whom shadows in parks belong, into the surrounding bush. There was a family having a picnic on the grass; Mum, Dad and two happy, glowing children. It startled Nora a little that the parents of this happy domestic picture were probably only a few years older than herself. Startled, disconcerted, and worried.

She parked the car and got out. She wouldn't go home yet. All that was at home was a bed that needed making and breakfast dishes that she hadn't had time for in the morning.

She went and sat on the swing and munched on her dinner. Sure, Subway was generic, American and evil, but it was quick and easy. Dishes free, and healthier than anything else she could buy.

A cloud passed over and she shuddered, wondering lightly where her grave was that people so frequently walked over it.

God, she hated work.

She set the swing into a lazy back-and-forth, and looked at the sky idly.