Man on a Bench

Sagelike Wisdom

By Gina Wood

As I walked to the bus stop, I found myself thinking of how bad my day had been. I was in a dead end job, I had a crappy apartment, and my boyfriend and I broke up at lunchtime. It was, without a doubt, a terrible day. As I sat down on the bench, I thought, Today can’t get much worse.

“So how was your day?” A gruff but sweet voice next to me inquired. I looked and seated beside me on the bench was an elderly, black man wearing a breathing tube that ran down to a small, self-contained, oxygen tank. He turned to me and weakly smiled.

“Crappy,” I scowled back, then turned my attention back to waiting for the bus. I thought maybe he would take the hint and mind his own business. He didn’t. Instead he slid closer to me and laid his arm on the bench back directly behind me.

“Look, pervert,” I growled as I straightened my posture, “I might be legal, barely, but I’m not interested.”

“Look into my eyes,” the man responded gruffly. Before I could react, I was caught. Staring deeply into his hard gray eyes, I began to see things not as I perceived them, but as they were.

I saw the woman across the street who was contemplating a very messy suicide because she just found out her cancer was terminal and she had no one to share her pain. She just stood there, crying soft, silent tears, unseen by the dozens of other people bustling past her on their way home.

I felt my attention shift. Next I saw the teenage boy who had raped his younger sister’s friend that afternoon while she was waiting for Laurie. I could feel the guilt resonating from him conflicting with the pride he had at finally scoring. Rage built up inside me as I stared hard at the kid.

Next, an image of a starved, beaten child floated in front of my eyes. This was called up from the older man in the nice business suit I saw crossing the street. I could feel he was unaware of the abuse his wife heaped upon their young son while he was at work. Yet, I could feel he was suspicious and that’s why he was leaving early.

The last scene was most horrific. A woman across the street, coming out of the pharmacy carried with her the means to kill her husband and two small children. She planned to poison their dinner, then collect the insurance. She also planned to poison herself and, to shift suspicion, she planned to have her husband prepare the meal. Oddly enough, this wasn’t the terrifying part of the scene. What was truly terrifying was she had done it before and gotten away with it, twice.

“Third time’s a charm,” my companion said, shattering the nightmare that unfolded in front of my eyes.

I shook my head and said, “Excuse me?”

“She’ll get caught this time,” he answered, then added as the bus pulled up. “What do you think?”

“My life isn’t so bad,” I answered without a second thought.

“Good girl,” he smiled as I got up and boarded the bus. As I found my seat, I looked out the window. He moved back to his original position. As the bus pulled away I noticed someone sitting down on the bench beside him. Someone very much like me. Someone who had had a not so bad day.

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