Bench Of Life

The old man sat on the same old bench, in the same old garden, in his same old clothes. Yes, a lot has changed. The tree which once gave shade to this bench had been cut off a few months ago because of some parasite growing on it. The garden was once an empty ground, now it had many slides, swings, merry-go-rounds, and sand pits (why do they need those, there is sand everywhere - he used to wonder’). Most of all. The company with whom he used to come had changed. As a toddler, his mum used to take him to play with the other kids. That must have been the time when he first met the cat eyed girl.

Many other times when he came, he was with his boys. With their shiny new bikes, trying to grab the attention of the cat eyed girl, in a pretty elegant dress, lost in the book. A few more years passed ahead in front of his eyes. He was now on the same bench, but with the cat eyed girl! - Allysa, Issa, he used to call her. And her eyes were not on the book anymore, but on him. His hands were not on bike gears, but grasping her hands. (Oh. those were the days). Flashing a few more years ahead in his dusted memory of his mind, he remembered coming in the park with her, but this time also with a ring and a dream of a life ahead.

Yes, he recalled how Issa had become my Issa as he got into one knee while she sat on the bench, with the same twinkle in his eye he had seen since the time they had learned to walk together. Life had given them the best bench, for the Myrtle flowers which once grew on the trees showered on them as she said yes. The memory moved faster ahead as the years ahead, flashing through uncountable hours they spent on the bench, but after a few years, also with a baby boy, he did have Issas cat eyes. His son, His love. He carried his little boy on his shoulders as his dad never did and Issa raised him to the Myrtle blossoms as her mum never did. Their life seemed to have blossomed like the flowers did.

The flowers didn't bloom forever did they, for the next time he was there after a long time. A man long lost an already lost war. He had Lost her. Forever. But he still didn’t let a tear fall off his eyes, for in his arms he had a little girl, hardly 3 months old, with the same cat eyes he has loved forever. His son played in the new made swings, unknowing his mummy wasn't gonna swing him higher anymore. The tree also seemed to get old with him for once, some parasite seemed to feed on it, sadness maybe. 

Well, the bench saw less visits from the man since. But he did see the two young cat eyed kids with smiling countenances and the same spark their mother had more and more often. Their dad did often pick them up. Sitting by the bench and a smile resonance of all life has presented to him. He did pick up his little girl to pluck the buds of myrtle and his son still begged him for a new mobile phone (how much time had changed, all i needed was a bike back then). 

The bench was adorned with more memories with time. As time passed ahead, He visited the bench rarely, but his daughter did meet up with some young gentleman often. He did remind the bench, the air and the tree of the man that once used to visit with the other cat eyed lady. Meanwhile the son did come to smoke some things he wasn't supposed to. 

More days, months, years passed into the haze. The kids no longer visited the garden, but then the man did. More and more often. As if some magnetic field held him back to the bench. Something must have, for as he felt the miserable feeling of death nearing, he decided he wanted to call his daughter and her new formed family to the garden, for the last time, his heart said.

The old man sat on the same old bench, in the same old garden, in his same old clothes. Yes, a lot has changed. His little girl today walked in with Her husband who had their twin daughters hands in his walked while she ran ahead to hug her dad, an old man he had become.

He hugged her for his son would no longer visit and she was all he had. After a lot of exchange of love between the family, the girls went to play in the sand pit. 3 girls with cat eyes, and two men with black ones who loved them more than they loved the world.