by Del Lobo

Created on: July 10, 2008

Title: Plenty of Fish

Anyone seeing Amanda sitting on the park bench eating her sandwich at lunch time would think she was a mother. She gazed fondly at the children swinging on swings and playing at the teeter toter. Once, when a ball came flying her way and landed at her feet, Amanda got up and flung the ball towards the little ones playing. No one saw her wipe a tear off her eye.

It was turning out to be a beautiful day after all. The sun was shining brightly and after several days of rain, this dry warmth was welcome to all sorts of creation. The children and their caretakers enjoyed this most of all because it meant that they left their homes. The children didn't feel as couped up in the confines of their homes and as for their caretakers, they were just happy to be out in the fresh air.

Amanda came to this park often during her lunch hours. The offices of the development agency where she worked were right around the corner. Most of her co-workers sat around in the furnished lounges provided by the workplace. They gossiped and exchanged news about home renovations and parties they had attended or were about to attend. Amanada loved her co-workers but her during her free time, she preferred to be in a quiet place, collect her thoughts and well, mostly try to recover from the hard blow she had been dealt with since the split up between her and Scott Cunningham.

Sometimes, even the joy of seeing little children jumping, running, playing and their innocent laughter was enough to set Amanda off into one of her crying spells. She couldn't help thinking of all the plans that she had made with Scott about their future. Amanda had probably put more thinking into the future life that they would have together than Scott ever did. Not even her wedding day mattered as much as it did to her co-workers. The way that Lou Harris went on and on about her wedding which was to happen sixteen months from now, was quite mind numbing. It was one thing if it was going to happen any moment but somehow, knowing that an event would take place way into the future, needed a strenuous exercise of the imagination. Something that Amanda could not afford at the moment. She was too wrapped up in trying to figure out what went wrong between her and Scott.

Excuse me, is this seat occupied?' a stylish looking woman of about 70 was asking her.
oh no, just a sec. here' Amanda moved away her paraphernalia and made room for the woman.
hope I'm not disturbing you, I'm here with my grandson' the woman had a soft voice which reminded Amanda of someone.
not really, actually, I'm about to leave, gotta get back to work' she said cheerfully.

Just about then, there seemed to be a commotion around the slides which sent the woman in a panic and she got up off the bench too fast. Amanda caught her just as she was about to fall.
oh my, don't know what's come over me. I need to check on my grandson playing there' the woman looked worried.
look, why don't you sit her for a bit and I'll go look' Amanda offered.

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