Part 16

The escape…in the mirror

On the way home from work I passed the park. Unconsidered it’s on way daily, but usually I ignore it. I do not know why I didn’t today. It was a beautiful summer evening and many people enjoyed this green barrier in the middle of L.A., in order to simply get away from it all. It is a kind of holiday feeling which arises, if you enter this park, if you hear the children laugh and see young couples in love sitting on their covers on the lawn, whispering stealthily. I sat down on a bench and watched the multicolored hustle and bustle, then closed my eyes and deeply inhaled the smell of recently mowed grass.

Suddenly I heard a voice: „Hey, it’s nice to see you here.” Slowly I opened my eyes and the evening sun blinded me until bit by bit I could see the silhouette of a woman.  And then I saw it, this indescribably beautiful smile. It folded up her mobile phone, pulled the headphones out of her ear and stroked her hair easily to the rear. With a gesticulation she pointed at the free seat next to me and I nodded to her. She sat down to me. I was struggling for breath and hardly got a word out. Like a little girl I stammered the idiotic question „Hey, what are you doing here?” Well, what should she do here, a shopping tour, being window-shopping, buying a car or perhaps just taking a walk, catching some breathe after and relax after a long working day, Tina?’ She only said: „Likely the same as you!” We looked at each other for a while and then we both had to laugh, I at my stupidity and she… I haven’t the faintest idea, but it loosened the situation a little.

It turned out that she worked here close by, she was manager of a real estate enterprise and mainly responsible for the project planning in whole L.A. and the surrounding countryside. She would have liked to become a painter, but after she had recognized that she was talented, but could not really making ends meet with it, she had decided to ensure at least that the alleged art, which others produced, could be put perspective. She talked so enthusiastically about her job that I just starred at her the whole time and followed the movements of her mouth, in joyous expectation of the next sweet smile on her lips.