The Bench

Click 'play' to listen to the music and try to read and feel the story :

A Short Story Written by:
Hicham Sbaa

Once upon a time, an old lady in her seventies was sitting on a bench in the park, she used to come to this exact bench every week for the past fifty years, she never missed a week, she usually just sits and looks at nature and enjoys the cool breeze and surfs in her memories.

An old man of the same age walked over and said:

"Would you mind if I sat down?"

Not wanting to break the tranquility of the moment, she just nodded her head. So, he sat down on the other end of the bench. Time went by, and as she was getting ready to leave, he nervously asked:

"Do you come here often?"

"Is that the best you have?" she replied.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is." he said, while shyly laughing.

She smiled at him, and said:

"Don't you just love this view?"

"Yes, it's wonderful, I really love it." he replied.

"By the way, I do come here often, every Wednesday, as a matter of fact, to this very bench" she said.

"How long have you been coming here?" he asked.

"Oh, more than fifty years."

"Wow, that's extraordinary!"

"So, Why did you break the habit?" he asked while looking at her, waiting for a response.

"Break it? What do you mean?" she said.

"It's Thursday."

"Thursday? Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course"

"No, no. you must be wrong, it's definitely Wednesday."

"It can't be. Because I always come here on Thursdays."

"Are you being funny?" she said with a serious tone.

"No, no. I always come to this bench to look at that view on Thursdays. So, it must be Thursday."

"Well, one of us is certainly wrong " she said.

She pointed to the two names carved into a heart shaped drawing on the bench and said:

"I've often wondered about them, do you think they were happy?"

"Well, who knows? At Least they were together." he said.

"Is that happiness?" she exclaimed.

He didn't know what to say to that, all he could utter was:

"I suppose we'll never know about them"

"Do you have a wife?"

"She died recently" he said with a sad tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry"

"No, it's okay. What about you?"

"My husband died few years ago, after fifty years of marriage, he was such a sweet man. But this bench was my little secret. I never came here with him in all those years. There was a time when he thought I was having an affair, because I wouldn't tell him where this place was. I used to tell him I was visiting my son, anything, just to get here. It was always important to me to have my little place; my little bench; my little view"

"You have a son?" he said.

"Yes, his name is John; he is in his forties now."

"John!! That's my name too. So, why here? Why this specific bench? "

"Well, there was a boy. We were young and in love, we only met few times. We met here. I was already engaged to my late husband and he was engaged to this girl, I don't remember her name, and things were... They were different times."

With a puzzled look on his face, not believing what he just heard, he looked at her and said:

"Jessica; the woman he was engaged to, she was called Jessica"

"And he was called John" she said, while looking at him with a stunned look, trying to recognize the face that belonged to her first love.

"And she was called Sarah" he uttered while still in shock.

As the sun was setting down, he laid his hand on her hand and without any more words they went back to enjoying that view, feeling the gentle wind on their faces, and recalling the beautiful memories they once shared.

: : End : :

Copyright 2009

The Bench