It was a mid-June Saturday afternoon like every other. Families gathered at parks, parties being planned -- a whole smorgasbord of festivities all coexisting independently. You could feel the energy, it was so infective and inviting. But even in this whole series of exciteful events there was a man drifting between now and somewhere else.
A man named John Satter. He sat upon a bridge off the coast fixated on the content noises and the sloshing of the waters below. He could feel their warmth and the cheerines as well as the cold from below. He thought of a past distancing from him and what happiness he had aquired from childhood was also slowly leaving him. Memories, some with his friends and other with his family, clinged on in his head trying to escape their demise. His eyes were shut. Thoughts flooded him. Memories resurfaced.
"Hello," A man calmly said. John opened his eyes wiping away his tears. "Care to share your seat?" John sat there for a moment looking at the man unable to move his lips in an attempt to break the silence. It was as if his lips were glued but he finally found words once again. "Uh sure I guess" John mummured. The man slumped over "Ah, a nice night. That salty breeze and that soft music over in the distance," The man looked at John. "Wouldn't you agree?" John once again looked out over the coast. He could hear the playful laughter and cheering. Those people parading as if it were their last day. Above he could see the stars all shining and thought of far off galaxies twirling in their wondrous beauty. "Yeah it is nice." John said. "Makes you forget them, those feelings and memories," The man said as he stared into the water below. "It makes you forget the losses, the pain," John looked at him. The man seemed melancholic for but a moment as if he too was experiencing a dreadful memory. "Life can be terrible but it can also be terrific. We all have trouble getting back up, to live after death, to keep going with others stop." The man then stopped and turned to look towards John, smiling as he did. "You've been dealt a bad hand, well play it to the end. It really is all we can do." The man spoke his last words to John and bid him a good night and so did John to the man. John sat there for a few moments more thinking about their conversation and arose from his seat and joined the merry band of families on the coast.
© Donovan Robertson