Out to Eat

The park and garden were beautiful. We had finished our picnic and were now dawdling in the welcome warm sun by the fish pools. I was getting a little tired, and the concrete bench carved with angels was hard, nonetheless. “Howard, sit with your back next to me,” I suggested to my husband, then I leaned back on him when he did. Wow! This was comfortable! I could sit here all day! The benevolent sun was warming us into indolence as we watched the hypnotic koi lazily swimming about, occasionally darting for a stray insect or some indefinable food underneath the water.

Spring was just coming to the gardens, the budding trees and branches mostly bare, but showing a promise of beauty, like a gangly 12-year-old who had not yet filled out, but whose face and features held a trace of womanliness. The soft greens that hinted of leaves and the violet of the red bud trees added to the pastel of blue sky, faded a little today with wisps of clouds veiling its brightness. We just couldn’t let this day go by without taking our sandwiches to the park; yesterday was a brilliant blue, but the winds were a little too sharp for an outing. And tomorrow promised rain.

“Look, someone’s got our place,” I had said to my husband when we first entered the park. A man dressed nattily in a business suit sat erect and preoccupied with papers spread out before him at a round table underneath an arbor. Maybe a salesman needing a brief retreat during this noon time, I thought. “It looks too sunny, anyway,” I consoled myself as we continued along the path. The first time we had eaten there, the overgrowth was actually stultifying with its denseness, but in the fall, with the leaves thinning, it was about right for our take-out lunch.

We veered from the path and took a shortcut across the sparsely greening grass to our destination: a gazebo, new last year, outfitted comfortably with side-by-side gliders, an octagonal picnic table, and benches encircling the walls. Egg-salad sandwiches with little pickles, iced tea, chips and snack cakes were a feast in this setting. All too soon, we were ambling our way back to the car. The arbor, empty by this time, would have been perfect with its dappled sunlight, I noticed as we passed it. Our gazebo, beautiful to look at, was shaded and a little cool within. But now soaking up the sun leaning back-to-back was a perfect way to get warm. Shaking off our sleepiness, we headed home for a nap.