Day at the Park and a Lesson Learned

A Short Story by Debbie Adams

Susan lived all alone and didn’t really have any friends since she just moved there a month ago. This morning she was feeling rather cooped up and lonely in her tiny apartment. She decided it was time to get out, and go for a walk in the nearby park to feed the ducks. She walked into her kitchen, grabbed a half eaten loaf of bread, then headed out the door.

When she arrived at the park she walked straight to the duck pond, but none of the ducks were around. She hesitated for a moment then sat down on the nearest park bench, broke up all the bread into little crumbs and fed them to the birds. As soon as the birds ate up all the bread crumbs, they flew away.

“Sigh, now what?  I’m out of bread, and all the birds have flown away. I don’t want to go back to my apartment yet. I have all evening and night to sit there by myself. I guess I’ll just walk around the park for a while.” she thought to herself.

Just as Susan was about to get up a gentlemen sat down beside her to rest from jogging.

“Sigh, why do I always over-do it,” he said, as he was trying to catch his breath.

“Over-do what?” she asked.

“Jogging,” he said, “I always try to push myself to jog a little further each day, but then over do it every time.” He replied with a chuckle.

She laughed.

The two of them began to talk with each other. She learned his name is Brian, and was glad she had stayed a moment longer or wouldn’t have met him.

“So what brings you to this park on this fine day,” he asked.

“I was feeding the birds, but now they’ve all flown away. The least they could have done was stick around for a while since I fed them.” She protested with a giggle.

“What kind of bread was it?” he asked.

“Just plain white bread.”

“Oh, well then, there is where you went wrong. You have to give them something with more substance so they don’t fly away looking for more to eat. Next time try Whole wheat with raisins, or Multigrain, the one with all the seeds in it.  Those would fill the birds up.” He explained to her.

“I never really thought about making sure the birds felt satisfied when they were done eating before. Maybe I’ll just bring them a full loaf of my white bread next time.” She said.

“Don’t tell me you eat white bread?” he asked with curiosity.

“Yes, I do, why? She replied with a slight defense.

He replied, “There’s no substance to white bread. The next time you shop for bread give the white bread a little pinch, and notice that it does not spring back. Then go to one of the better breads like Whole wheat or Multigrain bread and give one of those a pinch. You’ll notice that either one of those breads will spring back after you pinch them. They spring back because they have substance to them. In other words the bread is real and has life to it. The white bread is made with  processed flour, therefore has no life. It’s full of empty calories and will leave you feeling hungry sooner than either of the other breads. I could go on with a long list of  reasons why white bread is bad for you.”

“That’s okay, I’ll take your word for it. I didn’t expect to come to the park and get and education on bread, but am glad I did, Brian.” She said with a smile.

He smiled back, “It’s lunch time, would you like to join me at the local deli for a sandwich made with some Whole wheat bread?” he asked, “It would be my treat of course.”

She replied,

“I’d like that, Brian.”

© Debbie Adams 2013

Posted by Adamsart on June 28, 2013

https://adamsart.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/day-at-the-park-and-a-lesson-learned/