There was the big lawn. The woman next to me was Ally. She was trying to catch some sun. She had been in florida and just did not get enough. She would then go shopping. No, she did not want to meet this one friend, after all, she was dressed for the gym. Her boyfriend had sent her a text message. "Only 22 hours left until I get to kiss you..." how sweet. He was about to give him hell though. He claimed to have called her, to have sent her messages. She never got them. He told her to look at her bill. This was not enough. He would need to make up for it. Except that she would go to a dentist in 20 hours and so she was afraid that she would drool when they finally met.
The guy on the bench next to her, took of his sneakers. there he was in his dark red socks, in shorts, with his shirt thrown over his lap. He had various kinds of hair on his upper body. There was the and feathery kind all over his shoulders and back, there was the thick and heavy kind of vegetation in the center of his sly indented white chest. His arms were spread out on the back of the bench. He was the beautiful king of this park. At least from his point of view he was.
The three Irish Setters that were guided by us by a professional dog walker thought otherwise. They were just three confused pretty animals. Their thoughts were little sparks that guided them and rushed and slowed them down. The walker was a pro, but what he did was more a sort of dance, as he would step over leashes entangled by the reddish dogs.
IN the distance was the castle in the park, right across the big lawn. Outside of the park, a frozen explosion of familiar concrete. To the right, a new visitor, the AOL complex. I took a picture as the cranes on the roofs of the two buildings happened to point in the same direction and as the shadows of the meadow fence were cast in the opposite. I will probably forget about this image later.
Ally faced the sun. Her eyes closed, she was done with the phone call. I got up and walked towards the west side. "have a great day," I said... and that was all that was said this time...
