Thomas

The park looked warm and welcoming in the autumn sunshine, Thomas slowly ambled to his favourite spot trying to stay out of the shade, it was cold in the shade and that made his old bones ache. He had been coming to this park all his life, when he was very young he had chased leaves, and played in the summer sunshine, as he got older he had cut quite a dash, with his dark looks and twinkling green eyes, O yes he had turned quite a few female heads, but, love them and leave them, that had been his motto, and now, he was paying the price in his old age, he was miserable and alone, no one to snuggle up to on a cold wet night, no, his was a very poor existence.

He sat down by the lake and watched the ducks; no one took any notice of him it was like he was invisible. There was a small boy throwing bead to them, his mother, hovering close by keeping him safe.

Thomas often wondered if any of his children ever came into this park, he wouldn’t know any of them of cause, it had been much too long ago, years in fact since he had seen them, babies they were, the last time; O the folly of youth, he should have settled down, he knew that now! But he thought he would be young forever, so he had abandoned their mother, and the cosy home they had, he wanted to be footloose and fancy-free, see the rest of the world, he never got very far, and he had ended up back here with nothing.

Well, here he was, old and alone, his home was damp, and sometimes it was a struggle even to feed himself.

The old lady sat down on the bench beside him, he had been hoping she would come today, she wasn’t much to look at mind, but she always smelt nice, (which was more than could be said for him sometimes!) and, she was the only one in this park who had a kind word for him.

‘So it’s another fine day then’, she said; he nodded in acknowledgement; they sat for a long time in companionable silence.

The old lady unwrapped her lunch and passed a meat sandwich over to Thomas, she always shared her lunch with him, and he was always glad of it.

After they had finished eating, they both watched the small children by the lake for a while; the old woman spoke once again, ‘I have been thinking about this for a long time’ she said ‘So don’t interrupt me’, I know you, must be as lonely as I, and, I have assumed, that you are finding it hard to manage! She looked at Thomas’s less than tidy appearance as she spoke.

‘You aren’t as young and agile as you use to be’ with this she paused and looked at Thomas again with her gimlet eyes ‘So how would you like to come and share my home? now, don’t look at me like that! I have lots of room, and you can come and go as you wish, I know we have only known each other through coming to this park but I feel like we have been friends for years’.

She paused to smile at Thomas ‘we could both do with the company what do you say?’ Thomas looked at her for a long time, then he got up, he dipped his greying  head and touched her hand gently, his eyes, which had once been so bright and twinkling, were now growing dim, but they could still see well enough to detect the loneliness that was in the face of this small, thin, kindly old lady.

With this, she got to her feet and tucked the old cat, safely under her arm and the two unlikely friends made their way out of the park and home, to and better, and hopefully happier new life.