Loving you, loving me: Ch 10 at the park

I looked at the children playing in the playground in the distance [...]

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I didn’t answer, but just stared at my feet, which shuffled the dirt around my shoes. I wasn’t sure what I was trying to build, if anything, with my feet and the little dirt under the green bench we were sitting on, but it kept me occupied. The face of the bench bore markings left by people who felt it necessary to leave their mark for all to see. There were the expected swear words, and rude doodles. But in the confusion of tipex and permanent marker pens a number of genuine, heart-felt declarations shone through.

A young boy screamed with excitement as he dove down the slide. The centerpiece of the playground was a house with a slide, ladders, holes and ropes to climbon. A magical place, where children’s fantasies, dreams and imaginations met in a world in which they could play the hero, or the villain, or both.

Naked rees around us held their bare arms up high, like silent men and women reaching for the heavens in prayer.

A little creek flowed silently by, mirroring the confusion of branches looming over it.