“Look at them go!”
Bruce shifted his attention to the pond in the middle of the park. Clusters of kids who had hopped off the yellow school buses were doing their level best to corner some of the ducks along the shoreline of the pond, while their friends offered bits of sandwiches from their lunches. The kids were always discouraged when the ducks retreated back into the safety of the water, until they spotted another waddling out of the pond they could focus their attention on.
“This might be the one, Nancy.”
Bruce held his breath as he watched. This duck appeared to be eyeing the clump of bread, tilting its head to the side as though suspicious, but willing to chance its life for a morsel of human food. One of the kids grew restless and made to push the duck toward the bread. The entire mob of elementary school kids jumped back when it honked and flapped its wings at them before charging back into the water.
“Ohhh! Shouldn’t have rushed it,” Nancy remarked. “Thanks for talking me into doing this, Kyle.”
The cluster of kids were turning on their saboteur. Anxious over the prospect of being labeled unpopular, the child who had tried to speed the duck along pointed out another one venturing out of the pond. The group quickly abandoned their quarrel, rushing to the other side of the pond.
“After the brutal winter we had, I’ve been waiting for a day like this for almost two months,” Kyle replied, before taking a bite of his sandwich and washing it down with a soda.
The latest duck to step out of the pond onto solid ground noticed the oncoming battalion of screaming kids and waddled back into the water. The kids let out a collective groan.
“I know,” Nancy agreed. “I feel like I’ve been cooped up inside for months. I’ve either been confined to my apartment or that damn office.”
As Bruce tracked the packs of kids trying to sneak up on another duck, his eyes caught a smaller band of teachers. They, like the kids, were also ignoring the ‘Don’t Feed the Ducks’ signs posted all over the park. They also barely afforded the kids a moment’s glance.
They were all watching him.
“Speaking of that damn office,” Kyle began reluctantly. “We probably better get back. Our lunch hour is almost up.”
Bruce squirmed in his seat. When Kyle and Nancy rose from the nearby picnic table, his eyes immediately flew to them. It was euphoric breaking eye contact with those teachers.
“Alright,” Nancy sighed. “It’d be great not having to go back to that office ever again.” She paused to take one last look at the park. “It’d be wonderful to spend the rest of my life out here in the park.”
A slight breeze swept after them as they trudged away. Bruce had mistakenly taken that moment to sip on today’s whisky, and had to slam his fist down on last week’s crumpled newspapers to keep them from blowing away. They were right. Winter had been brutal. And even though it was warm today, it was still bitterly cold at night. The park bench did little provide warmth on its own.
Spend the rest of your life at the park? Yeah right. I’d give anything to be indoors again.