The Picnic Table

Flash Fiction 


The autumn leaves were falling at the park by the river. The autumn leaves fell upon the picnic table by the rushing river. The crying of a baby pierced the cool air of the mid autumn day. The crying of the baby seemed to come from the area of the picnic table. But there was no one around. The young couple were just going to have a quiet picnic by the river. But there wasn’t any quiet here, there was the crying of a baby. 

Amber and Dan approached the area of the picnic table, once they got past the trees blocking it from view. There they saw it: there was a crying baby, only hours old, lying on the picnic table, and there was nobody around. Quickly, Anna approached the baby lying on the picnic table and made sure it was okay. The baby was definitely a girl, wrapped tightly in blankets, and she hadn’t been there very long. The most likely scenario to Amber was this baby was abandoned and unwanted. Amber carrying the baby in her arms went over to Dan, and told him what she had found, and why she thought the baby was there

”She must be unwanted.Why don’t we take her to the local hospital and tell them that we just found her here on the picnic table crying, and that I don’t know who’s she could be, but that there was no one around.” Amber was in a panic, she wanted the baby to be somewhere safe soon, and whoever left her there identified, if possible.

The baby girl found on the picnic table survived, and was adopted to a loving family. Whoever put her on the picnic table that day was never identified. She grew up and wondered more about who she was and where she came from. So, on an autumn day 20 years later, Mara decided to go to the place where she had been told she was found- the picnic table might be no longer there, but the spot would be the same, with the river still rushing by. Mara had never been there. She might never know where she came from, but to her it was important to visit the place where she had first been seen, though it was not the place where she had first been.