Encounter With a Nice Man

I'm not one for creative writing. I'm not into fiction. I was listening to a Black Sabbath song, and it gave me an idea for a short story, and I felt strongly inclined to write it.

Enter an old woman, age 80. She's hunched over from mild osteoperosis. Her hair is thinning, white. She's slightly overweight, as most older women tend to be, but not extraordinarily so, by any stretch of the imagination. She wears a flowery sun dress. She sits on a bench in a public park, a large purse in her lap, lost in her own thoughts about old age. All of a sudden, something catches her eye. Is someone watching her? She lifts up her head, and over by the swings she catches sight of someone.

A young man (possibly 25?) is staring at her. He has broad shoulders, an athletic physique, fair blonde hair. He's dressed simply, in a t-shirt and jeans. He strikes her as positively charming. A smile comes to her face, and a sense of indescribable joy overwhelms her, though she isn't sure why. She decides to say hello. She looks down at her purse to pick it up, and with great labor, she stands...but when she looks again by the swings, the man is gone. A great feeling of disappointment washes over her, and with slumped shoulders, she slowly makes her way to her car.

Driving home, in her intense loneliness, the thought of that young man consumes her. He sees him everywhere. His image has taken hold of her. Stopping at a stop sign at a 4 way intersection, she checks her rearview mirror, and could almost have sworn that she saw his face there. This didn't scare her, though, but again, she is filled with this sense of elation. Though feeble and fragile, she quickly turns around to look behind her...but he isn't there. Was it all in her head? Is her old mind playing tricks on her? With a sigh, she turns back to face the road in front of her, and carefully checking to make sure that no other cars were about to pass, she accelerates and drives on.

She arrives back at her home, a small 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom brickhouse. The lawn is well kept...she doesn't do it herself. She pays a guy to cut it for her. She gets out of her car, and moves to the trunk so that she can get her groceries. She had just stopped at the park for a brief sit down on the way home from the grocery store. She wanted a breath of fresh air, a brief reprieve from the house, from which she doesn't tend to stray much now in her old age. She lives alone there. Her husband had years ago, and she doesn't have any children. She was barren when she married her husband. Retreiving the bags from her trunk, she feels a pressure on her shoulder. Is that a hand? She closes her eyes, a sad smile washing over her face. Will it finally be him? Will he finally say hello? She turns around...and nobody's there. It must have just been the breeze. A tear forms at the corner of her eye and rolls down her cheek. She's so lonely.

She starts to put away her groceries, thoughts of the unknown man heavy on her mind. When she's finished with the groceries, she puts a pot of coffee to brew, and takes a seat at the kitchen table when it's finally ready. She's sipping at the coffee, and watches one of her afternoon soap operas. Through the window of the kitchen, looking into her backyard, she catches sight of him again! There he is! She sees him, and it's unmistakeable! He's standing in her backyard, looking at her...his expression is one of such longing and desire. His look is one of such love...but yet, there underlies that love such a deep sadness. Maybe he'll finally talk to her? She rises to her feet and goes to the door leading out, a white wooden thing...but when she opens the door, he's gone. Where did he go now...? She returns to her table, and is positively unconsolable now. Her head and upper body collapse onto the table, and she weeps uncontrollably.

Now it's bed time. She has eaten dinner, watched her evening shows, showered and brushed her teeth... and around 9 P.M., she slips into bed. Around 11 PM, she awakens. She feels positively weak, drained...it's as though all of her physical strength has left her. Her breathing is ragged...she feels cold. She looks up and peering through the darkness, she seems the outline of a man...that same man...standing in her room. She flips on the lamp at her bedside table...and sure enough...there he stands, looking down at her. He slowly walks up to her bedside. "Who are you," she asks. "Don't you recognize me?" She peers up into his face...and all of a sudden, it dawns on her. That nose...those eyes...those ears...they're just like hers!

60 years ago, she met this guy, and she had a one night stand...exactly 60 years from this day, right about 11 P.M. no less! 3 months later, she found out that she was pregnant. She was so scared. What would her parents say? What would it mean about the marriage that she was supposed to have with her fiancee...? She couldn't let her husband to be know about this! It was supposed to be a secret, a one time thing...her life seemed to be over because of this...so she got an abortion. There was so much bleeding...the abortion left her uterus mangled. She was barren ever since. She lied to her fiancee and told him that it was cancerous and had to be removed. The poor shmuck he was, he believed her.

Looking up at the young man, her entire life flashes before her eyes. How different might her life have been if she would have had him in her life! "Where have you been all my life...?" He doesn't answer her. He doesn't need to. She already knows the answer to it. He never saw the light of day...because she killed him. "I forgive you, mother." With that, she closes her eyes...and dies.