Wanda On The Park Bench

by

William Kitcher

I never did find out her name. For some reason, I thought it was Wanda.

We met in the park. I was sitting on a bench, looking for pictures in the clouds.

When I looked down, Wanda was sitting on the bench across from me. I hadn’t noticed her there before. Perhaps she had been, and I’d just been oblivious, a not unlikely state for me. She was staring at me.

I smiled at her but Wanda made no reaction.

“Hi,” I said.

No reaction.

I went back to cloud gazing.

The next time I looked at Wanda, she was lying down on the bench. She looked comfortable. She yawned once, then fell asleep.

I sat there for another couple of hours. No one came by.

Wanda woke up, stretched, and got off the bench. She took a few steps toward me.

I looked at her. Nice looking, I thought. Mature. Calm.

“Do you wanna come home with me?”

Wanda just stood there.

I got up and started for home.

She followed me.

We’ve been together for ten years now. She doesn’t eat much and never complains but sneezes more often than I’d like. I hope she doesn’t leave me. We go for long walks together, but, just in case, we never go to the park anymore.

Bill Kitcher’s stories, plays, and comedy sketches have been published, produced, and/or broadcast in Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czechia, England, Germany, Guernsey, Holland, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, the U.S., and Wales. His comic noir novel, “Farewell And Goodbye, My Maltese Sleep”, the second funniest novel ever written, was published in 2023 by Close To The Bone Publishing, and is available on Amazon.