A Stranger

I sat down for a minute on a park bench on a summers day. I noticed a figure, it seemed to be coming closer and then moving away. I thought nothing of it but then it stopped and stood. As I looked he felt familiar. He smiled and asked if he could share my bench, I looked around and said of course he could. He seemed keen and eager to catch my eye. It was strange because it seemed to him that the whole world was just him and me. He asked if he could show me a picture after telling me his name. I nodded with interest as I told him my name. A picture of faces, two girls and two boys. A woman he called his wife. They all had such smiling eyes. As I looked at him his face changed, now cold with a deadly stare. Then he disappeared in front of me, like he’d never even been there!! As he vanished in to thin air he spoke words that made me cold. My wife came out of the shop and sat down on the bench. She asked me what it was I’d just said, apparently words came out my mouth. We walked on together, holding hands and admiring the flowers. She asked me why I’d said that and I said I couldn’t remember what I’d said. She said that I just blankly said: ‘I chose this life with no regrets’ Then, a rush of clear memory flooded my mind. I stopped and looked at her and said : ‘Something had just happened that made me think I was losing my mind - a man sat down beside me and then just disappeared and as he vanished in front of me he said ‘that in his life, in another world - I was his dad’!!