In the middle of our town there sits a bench: a bench everyone walks past every day but never recognizes. The bench is made of a cedar wood; you could see the creases in the wood grain. The paint on the bench looked so freshly painted you could almost smell it in the air. The paint was a reddish brown you can see a sort of shine to it like it had a thick layer of gloss over it. This bench is so insignificant to everyone that at one point the town had petitioned to get rid of it. Every morning I walk down to the middle of town square, sit across the street from the bench and watch and see how many people actually take a second glance at the bench.
It was an autumn Sunday morning, you could smell the crisp fall morning air. You could see the dew on the fallen leaves, a brightness that you only get at this time of the year. A pan-tone rainbow of oranges, yellows and reds interspersed with the last greens of summer. I was sitting snugly in my black wool jacket as the cold morning air rushed past my face. On this day in particular, things weren't as fast paced it could possibly be because it was a Sunday and a lot of people were at home resting or cooking dinner for their families.
From a distance, I saw a woman who looked like she was jogging. She had on gray yoga pants that were obviously way too high up on her waist, she was also wearing a bright neon pink Nike shirt. Her auburn hair was all pulled back and neat. I watched her as her pony tail waved back and forth in the air while she jogged across the sidewalk. She looked so out of breath, beads of sweat running down her flawless ivory skin. Suddenly something happened, the woman stopped, went up to the bench and propped her body up against it. Someone was actually paying attention to the bench; it could actually have a purpose now. After a few short minutes of leaning up against the bench, the woman jogged off. I had a small grin on my face.
As the Sunday afternoon closed and the evening time came, I saw an elderly couple walking by. The wife had on a white gown, it went about two inches below her knees. The collar of the neck had a tan lacing, she was wearing a brown wool coat, with a blue scarf and a blue checkered hat. I giggled to myself at her attire. The elderly man was a very plain and simple looking man he was wearing brown slacks, with a white long sleeve dress shirt partly tucked into his pants. The elderly couple walked towards the bench hand in hand. Then something happened even more significant than the lady jogging leaning on it. The elderly couple sat on the bench. I was shocked because I had never even seen anybody take a second glance at it, let alone sit in it. So I walk over and asked the elderly couple if I could sit by them, they nodded and smiled. All three of us were sitting on the bench. From then on it seemed like more people were taking time out of their busy life to sit on the bench all because of that elderly couple. It wasn't long after that, that the elderly woman passed away in her sleep. Her husband and I took her ashes to the bench and spread them around it. From then on more people started sitting on the bench and enjoying it everyday and not just in the Autumn.
