A gentle wind rustled through the grass of the park where children played and lovers declared their eternal devotion. On a firm wooden bench, a lone woman threw bred to the hordes of hungry birds pecking at the ground and fighting for each crust against an army of their brothers. Her eyes seemed to gaze beyond the peaceful summer scene that surrounded her as her worn calloused fingers reached in her bag for the last few precious crumbs.


What is she thinking of as the warm summer sun caresses her cheek? Who is she with the far off gaze? Why is she in this park of all parks? You tell me. ^ ^

-Lori

Had it really been only four years since she found herself, alone and abandoned, in this nightmare....?

Nightmare really isn't the right word, she thought. It's pleasant enough. It's not intolerable, but....it's not like home....

She watched the geese on the pond. They were placid now, some of them floating like plastic statues on pedestals of water, but she knew it was only a matter of time before they'd be squawking and splashing and squabbling over some inscrutable, incomprehensible bone of contention.

Just like people....

And there were people here, lots of people, scattered around throughout the park. They don't look so very different from the people of my time, she thought.

Being abandoned in this time, on this world -- this was her punishment. This was her sentence for some long-forgotten crime against humanity -- against what was left of humanity -- in the far distant future of the year V71B3X6.9.

In seven more years, it all ends here, she thought to herself.

Seven more years.

She shook her head, looked up at the sun through the branches above her.

It was so much brighter back then, back -- now -- ?? These time shifts always cause so many terminological problems.

A squirrel ran past, apparently chasing an invisible fleeing acorn.

She stood up. Music blared from a boom box on a blanket some sixty feet to the west. Two boys in shorts tossed a Frisbee back and forth.

I can never go back.

She walked over to the water fountain, pushed the button, took a long drink. She gazed back at the bench she had just left. I wonder when that bench stops being there? Tomorrow, a year from now, the day before it happens....?

There was no way to know. It occurred to her that the question itself was a little odd.

She took another drink, and shook her head again. You think it will last forever, but you're wrong. Once the water is gone....

There was no point in trying to warn them. She already knew how it ended.

Wonderfully written my good fellow. ^ ^ It left an array of questions and was very thought provoking.

Thanks, it's what I do....!