I Wish
By O.Frank
The air is warm this spring day. The over whamming feeling of new birth, of life coming back in to a once cold snow covered park on the north side of town. It's a small park, only a block square, but clean with the typical evergreens that are found in ever park. A sidewalk covered with a heavy coat of dust meets at four corners of the park. In the middle of the park the grass is still parched with an occasional spot of green.
On one of the green park benches near the edge of the walk sets a quite elderly man. His arms are both grasping the back of the bench. A cane is hanging over his right leg. A dusty gray hat sits on his head, seeming to match his age, and dirty brown suit. If you look into his face, with its long thin nose, you see a kindness, a hint of wisdom. An almost sad look, and it would be obvious that he was watching the children running and laughing in the center of the park. It too would be quite obvious that he envied the children.
One of the children, a little boy in a red striped shirt, stops running when he noted the old man, and with out hesitating runs over to him.
"Hay mister! Do you want to play?
"Well now, Just what are you playing, little one?"
"Knights." the little boy said.
"Knights, well just why would you want me to play knights?"
"Bob is king Arthur, and Joanna is the queen, and I'm Sir Lancelot, and you can be Merlin the magician who helps me. "
" Well now, I just don't know. I'm kind of old to be running around out there"
"Oh, please mister."
"Did you know," said the old man with a twinkle in his eye, "That I used to be Sir Lancelot, too. "
"You did! Were you really a real knight."
"Well now, I pretended to be just like you but we used to make shields and swords out of cardboard boxes. I once had shield made form wood and ever kid in the neighborhood wanted one too."
"Gee! That’s neat, did you kill mean knights, and fight any seven headed dragons?"
"Well now, I used to think I really killed mean knights and dragons. Why, I used to fight three dragoons at ones. Why, I can remember once......."
It doesn't take much to fell a child's head with all kinds of wild dreams that thrill the imagination, nor does it take much for an old gentleman to start turning back to the once golden days of his experience.
The air is growing chilly with the coming of night. The once warm spring day is fading away, as if it was tired and need to rest somewhere in the darkness that has creeping upon our little park.
"Gee, Did you save the prances?"
"Well now I thought so. But it is getting kind of dark. Don't you think you had better be getting home?
"Yes, I gauss so, my mother told me to be home before dark. By mister."
Good-by my little one, God Bless you.
As the little boy walks slowly down the walk he glances back and waves at the old man sitting there still with his hands grasping the back of the bench. If one looks closely, one can see a little tear forming in the eye of the old man.
The air is cold. The only light is the old streetlight standing at the corner, near the now deserted bench on the corner of the little park.