The Old Man in the Park

My name is Sun-Sun Han. I once knew an Old Man. He was a six-foot-tall lean man with a clean-shaven wrinkled face. He had patches of grey hair on the sides of his otherwise bald head.

Whenever I visited the Children's Park I would see him sitting on the wooden bench reading the newspaper. When I walked past him I would say,"Hello Sir!" and he would answer "Hello little girl" and give me a toothy wide smile which revealed his mouth with half missing teeth.

I loved the Old Man. He was always so cheerful and engrossed in his own way. I wished I could be like him when I grew old. I was always so disturbed. Even the smallest things used to upset me very much. The Old Man, on the other hand, was so peaceful.

Sometimes when I was feeling very bad I would sit on the wooden bench in the corner of the Park and bury my face in my hands and just cry. The Old Man would walk up to me and pat my head. "Come, my child, what's the matter with you dear? Are you alright?" he would say and try to console me.

I lied to him at first and said that everything was alright and just run back to home. But, when I went over to the Park the next day he just looked up at me and smiled. I just couldn't control myself and I started crying again. I told him my problem.

"You see Sir, I want to study in the School like the other children. But, my mother is very poor and my dad is dead. So, I had to leave my education to help my mother to run our small Grocery store."

The Old Man listened to me patiently and told me,"Do not worry my child. Everything will be alright. Your wish shall definitely come true very soon. Now go home and sleep in peace."

I wondered what was about to change. I thought that the Old Man was just trying to console me. Yet some part of me wanted his prediction to come true. That day before sleeping I prayed to God to make my wish come true.

The next morning I woke up and got ready. I was feeling very excited and was feeling surrounded by a sense of positive energy. I had not felt this type of radiance in me before.

I walked to the Grocery store with my Mom. We worked almost until noon. Nothing out of ordinary had happened yet. I was beginning to feel that maybe I was a fool to believe in the Old Man. Yet some part of me still wanted to hold on to my wish.

We were about to close the store for lunch when a shining big car stopped in front of our store. Two men in business suits walked up to my Mom and said,"Mrs Han we have a business proposal for you."

My mom called them inside the store and asked me to bring two chairs for them. She then asked me to wait outside the store.

My mom and the men talked for around fifteen minutes after which they left. After they had left I ran to my Mom and asked her about those people. My mom was crying. I was surprised as I had never seen my Mom cry in front of me before. She always tried to be brave in front of me and acted like the man of the house. I had seen her cry alone sometimes. But, she never cried in front of me.

So, I felt sad and asked her,"Mom, are you alright? Who were those men? What did they want?"

She replied sobbing,"Sweetie, those men want to buy our grocery store. They want to raze it down and open a big shopping complex in its place. They are ready to pay a very good amount as compensation. Now I will not have to worry about your future anymore."

We hugged each other and cried. I remembered the Old Man and ran to the Park to tell him the good news. But, I could not find him anywhere. I searched for him all over the Park but he was nowhere to be found.

After that day, I did not find him in the Park. After we sold the Grocery store we moved to another city where I could study in a bigger school and my mother took up a job in a grocery store.

Many years later, I happened to visit my old city. It so happened that I took my little daughter Natalie to the same Children's Park to play.

I was walking in the Park when suddenly my eyes fell on a bust located in the middle of the Park. It was the bust of an Old Man. The Man had a patch of grey hair and a wrinkled face. The bust stood on a shining black marble stone and it read
 Mr Raymond Hayes
 1710 - 1798
The Man who contributed everything to Children's education

I took Natalie and rushed to our old Grocery store. In its place now stood a children's library named Hayes Children's library.

I went inside the library and inquired the Librarian about Mr Hayes. He answered,"Mr Hayes sold his house and contributed all his pension money to fund this Library. It is also said that he did all of this to help a little girl who worked in a Grocery store which stood in this same place."

The End