Wait for Me

A young boy sat on a bench waiting. No one knew how long he had been sitting there or what he was waiting for. He just sat there as the sun came and went. Day after day he sat in the park as people around him went about their lives. Children ran around the fountains laughing, while others walked hand in hand never noticing the boy waiting on the bench. When it rained the boy pulled out an umbrella and sat saying nothing to anyone. When it snowed he put on a thick wool coat and sat looking out into the park as time went by.

One sunny summer day a little girl with dark brown hair and a bright red dress stood in front of the boy. The boy looked at her and she looked back at him. She smiled and the boy smiled back and just as he was about to speak she turned and ran off. He had feeling like he should have done more but paid it no mind and forgot about the girl as time went by.

A few years later, on a rainy spring day, a girl with dark brown hair and a bright red shirt walked up to the now young man and sat on the bench next to him. Without looking the young man held his umbrella over the girl's head and they both sat for a bit looking out at the deserted park. Soon the girl's parents walked over, took her hand and the young man resumed his waiting.

Soon the boy was a man and as he sat on the bench, with his wool coat and snow piled up all around him, a woman with dark brown hair and a bright red coat walked toward him. She was with someone this time. A man with a sharp black overcoat held her hand as they both stood in front of the man on the bench. He looked up as they looked down and the three pondered each other for a while. Tears began to well up in the man's eyes and as the two turned to leave the tears in the man's eyes burst down his face and as they walked away he cried.

Years later the man was now an old man sitting on a bench alone. No one talked to him or really noticed him there. Sometimes the children would see him there and make fun of how old and weird he was but that was the most attention he received. Still, he just sat waiting.

The day before his death the man sat not knowing it would be his last day of watching the world pass him by. Later, in the evening an old woman with dark brown hair and a bright red dress walked slowly toward him. She sat down beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder. The man caressed her hair and as she took her last breaths he held her. She had came back, once more, to die by his side and he sat with her until the sun came up wondering about the life she had lived and one he had not.

As the sun rose the man closed his eyes and slept for the first time. When he opened his eyes again he was looking up at the face of a little girl with dark brown hair and a bright red dress looking back at him smiling. He smiled back and as she turned to leave he stood up, held his hand out, and said, "Wait for me."

The girl stopped, turned around and said, "Come on already," and the two ran off into the sun filled park together.