Sadness

   He had been sitting alone on a bench in the little park for hours. His pants were wet and half frozen. He hadn’t bothered to brush away the thick coating of snow before sitting down. The trees sparkled from the heavy frost as if they were coated with sugar. Large flakes floated about like frolicking white butterflies and were collecting on his exposed head and clothing but he paid no attention to them. Not long ago he would have marveled at all the simple beauty around him but now nothing really mattered.

   He slowly got up, sighed and shuffled along the icy path, eyes looking down at the ground, oblivious to his surroundings. He rarely paid attention to the world around him anymore. He could hear people speaking as they passed but their words were just a jumbled noise of unintelligible conversations flittering through the wind.

   The harsh icy wind whipped around him; that moist bitter cold that somehow always seems to penetrate your clothing and chill you to the bone. It savagely bit into his skin and was just another annoyance to his increasing discomfort. Where was he going and what was he going to do? And who really cared anyway? It had been a depressing day and he told himself that tomorrow would be better. And sometimes it would but shattered lives don’t mend themselves.

   Another wave of sadness washed over him and tears began to stream slowly from his eyes. She was gone and nothing on earth could bring her back to him. How could he go on and did he even want to?

   He turned the corner, his vision blurred by the tears that were beginning to painfully freeze on his face and his tragic life came to an abrupt end. There was just a second of pain. The driver of the bus had lost control on the dangerously icy street. A crowd gathered around the scene. He could hear their words but did not understand. He stared into the flashing blue lights on the ambulance and smiled as he faded off. Try as they might nothing could be done to save him which was probably for the best. At least the sadness he had been painfully enduring had finally passed.