Esther showed up just as the little man who sold the sweet tea out of the pedal cart was leaving.
He recognized her, slowed, sold her his last one.
She walked to the end of the pier...was it a pier, or just a slab of cement jutting into the river?
The park was so neglected.
Esther couldn’t help but be reminded of herself.
She realized her stethoscope was still around her neck. How the hell did she take her scrubs off but not lose the stethoscope? She felt like she was sleepwalking through the past few weeks.
A tiny quiver of happiness hit her when she realized that where her ring had been was almost the same level of tan as the rest of her finger. Progress.
There was a plaque on the bench she chose. It was dedicated to a Detroit rescue diver who had drowned nearby. Howard P Williams. 2002. Esther had been a fiancee then.
Scratched on the plaque it also read Juandello hearts Kaitlyn, the heart being a crude thing of right angles.
Thanks, Juandello, you inconsiderate asshole, Esther thought.
“ The Tall Ships will pass here tomorrow.” a male voice said
Esther jammed the straw from the sweet tea in her mouth. She would rather swim to Windsor than small talk with a stranger, especially a man.
After a deep swig, she said “I’m not really a boating fan. I come here for the breeze. And the solitude.”
She said the last three words like she was angrily volleying a table tennis ball. And. Thwack. The. Thwack. Solitude. Thwack. Matchpoint.
“You look familiar,” the man said, ignoring Esther’s inflections.
He was gaunt, not particularly attractive.
“I hear that sometimes,” Esther said, standing.
“I really feel like we’ve met.”
“We haven’t,” Esther said.
The man nodded. He had warm, expressive eyes, with a little skin tag and birthmark on his left eyelid. Older than Esther by a decade probably.
Esther would have to walk past the man or jump the corner of the water between the cement and the grass. She honestly wanted to get away from him so badly she thought about jumping in the water fully clothed.
“I’m bothering you,” the man said. “It wasn’t my intent. I had...a rough day at work. But...but I’ll leave.”
He stood and began to walk across the grass.
A lone rubber swing on a metal stand made for three swings blew awkwardly in the breeze.
The man’s head drooped. There was a tissue in his hand.
“I’m sorry,” Esther called. “I’m having a rough couple weeks too. Nothing personal. I’m…” she couldn’t say the D word. “I’m sorry.”
He turned and smiled sympathetically.“I hope your weeks get better,and soon,” the man said. “Super courage.”
Esther tittered, bordering on a derisive laugh.
Super courage. Weird thing to say.
Her idyll disturbed, the little park trip wasn’t doing the trick. She threw a half-full sweet tea in the rusty receptacle and walked back to her car.
In the front seat, she pulled down the mirror.
She didn’t like what she saw. The divorce was aging her. Or is my aging why Phil screwed that little paralegal?
She called Dana.
“This divorce is killing me, I look like I’m ninety, and I just hurt some strange guy’s feelings in Western Park.”
Dana clucked, which Esther expected.
“Divorce is rough on everybody, you’re gorgeous and I would kill ducklings to have your butt, and fuck that strange guy, he’ll get over it.”
“I knew you’d know the right things to say. Don’t kill ducklings. You can have my butt. Can I come over and get in the hot tub?”
“Yeah, girl. Get here. Samantha and Cherisse are coming over. Don’t say nothing, but they lost three little ones in Six West today. Three in one day, girl.”
“Wow. That’s rough. I’m glad we chose dermatology. I don’t think I could do Six West…”
Without warning, Esther felt a tightness in her chest, a feeling like she had left a stove burner on and was twenty minutes from home.
“Wait...Dana...don’t they have a clown for the kids up in Six West…”
“Yep, Dr. Allen. Cherisse loves him. Does his oncology thing then does the clown gig for the kids another like twenty hours a week.”
“And reminds the kids they gotta have “super courage” right?
“Yep, that’s him.”
Esther said “I might bring a friend”, hung up on Dana and ran through the parking lot back into the park.
***
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Awww 😢