Imagined Moments

I thought I should come up with something to help my writing-fu and this is it. Imagined Moments. It just a writing exercise that is based on the idea of coming up with a small scene that tells a little a little story. Anyone who wants to add their own to the comments … feel free. I will probably post one ever couple of days.

Imagined Moments #1

He sat on a bench in the middle of the mall, people walking by him on each side, head down and tears streaming down his cheeks. He was in his sixties or seventies, his grey hair only thin wisps on top of his head. His skin was a leathery brown, freckled and spotted with age. He must have been a man who had spent most of his life out in the open, I thought to myself as I stood there with my two year old daughter in my arms, waiting for my wife to come out of the store. He wore plain brown slacks and a short sleeved faded canary yellow button shirt, clothes that I assumed he had been wearing for the last thirty years

The older man looked down at his hand, watching as the tears fell from his face to land on his palm, then slowly he looked up and our eyes caught each others. We looked at each other for only a few seconds.

I could feel his sadness, it was tangible, a thickness in the air as we stood staring at each other. Perhaps it was only my imagination but my daughter squirmed in my arms as if she could feel it as well.

I moved to go speak with him, but as I took a step, the older man stood up from the bench, turned and disappeared into the crowd of shoppers.

"Okay let's go," I heard my wife say as she walked up next to me.

I paused trying to see if I could find him and then said, "Okay."