Just a Man on the Bench

“Just a Man on the Bench”

The smoke curled skywards from his amber-coloured fingers

His eyes scanned the street for some compassion

His tilted baseball hat covered a head of flowing, curly black hair

a genetic disposition he inherited from his mom

Someone once told him that goodness could be found everywhere

Each day he came to the same bench outside the train station to drink his morning coffee

In hope that the steaming nectar would warm and energize him

He sat patiently while he killed himself softly with his nicotine

Every day he looked at the faces of the thousands of people coming and going �" never once did anyone look his way

Easy to have no compassion when one looks the other way

He saw no sparkle in their eyes - only sad and drawn expressions as they made their daily pilgrimage to the alters of the Gods of capitalism and consumerism

One day his eyes followed the smoke from his nicotine laced weapon as it rose heavenward

and he caught sight of something that astonished him

A woman had stopped in front of his bench and was looking down at him

From where she stood her silhouette was all he could make out as the sun behind her

was blinding in its glare

She said something but it did not register with him as he was still in shock over the fact that someone had actually stopped to speak to him

She spoke to him again and this time with his senses restored he understood her words

“Excuse me, could you please tell me the time?”

He looked at his old watch, the one entrusted to him by his cousin some fifty years ago

Her face now came into focus

He could see the innocence as she had removed her designer sunglasses

He recognized it immediately

It was as if he was looking in a mirror from fifty years ago

He saw the same burning ambition and excitement blazing from those cobalt blue eyes

She had an exterior bearing about her that contradicted her over-anxious interior

He looked at the old watch face and said

“It is 8:30; however, this is not your real time”

She looked at him with an air of suspicion wrapped in the arrogance of youth

She was about to turn away when a gust of wind swept past the bench and sent a shiver through her on this warm June morning

The man stood and looked up into the sky above and stretched out his arms

in a pose that some might have considered missionary like

His words flowed softly towards her

“Your time is here right now and it is limited so consider whether you wish to be seduced

by the job you are chasing or embrace the world right in front of you”

She was so taken aback by his words that she stumbled backwards - he caught her

before any damage was done and their eyes met for an intense moment

In each other’s eyes they saw a reflection of the other burning into their souls

He sat back on the bench and cast his eyes downward knowing that he had

made the connection he had been waiting for all these years

His daughter had not recognized him initially until she saw his eyes and then she

realized that he had been there every day but she had never taken the time to really notice him

in her haste to get to work

He was just another “old man” on a bench �" mostly invisible and of no importance in her fast-paced life-style

She put her sunglasses back on and turned to walk away but her intuition

told her to sit down beside the man �" she was now certain this old man was her father- they had been estranged for many years after her parents had divorced

She reached out and took his hand in hers as tears of happiness and gratitude flowed

They now spoke of happy times long since past

Work would have to wait �" life had just interrupted her big plans

© G. A Bernard 2022