The Park Bench

As I sit down on the same faded, rusted green park bench I always sit at, and open my lunchbox, even though I packed it myself this morning, I still hope something else has miraculously found its way into the box. I’m bored. I’m bored with my job, I’m bored with myself, I’m bored with the same lunch, every day. Alas, white bread, tuna, and cheese are all I find. Ugh, I think, I disappoint myself. Not even my lunches are spontaneous anymore. I look down and realize even my clothes are boring - jeans and a white top - wow, somebody stop me!

I look around the big beautiful green park in the middle of the city and take a deep breath. I love this park, it’s so large you can’t see one side from the other, always quiet, big leafy trees everywhere, It’s peaceful. I could have stayed in the office for Jenny’s birthday lunch, the food would have been better, but the company would have been worse. I’m bored, but I’m not desperate. Yet.

I take my journal - my little black book, out of my bag, and hold it. I like my journal - it’s small and simple, it makes me feel comfortable, safe. I open it and start to read over my last entry, trying to find inspiration for the rest of the day, when suddenly a man sits next to me on the bench. I look at him and immediately get the sense that he’s not to be trusted. It might be the hat, trench coat and glasses that do it. I look around the park and see all the other empty benches, and then look back at him. I slowly close my book and move my arm towards my bag, hoping I can get to my pepper spray before he attacks me.

“Don’t” he says. I freeze. He doesn’t look at me.

Oh god, oh god, I think, I’m going to die here on this bench with a white bread tuna and cheese sandwich!

“Don’t look at me!” He whispers aggressively.

“What?”

“Don’t look at me!” He whispers again.

I turn away, not sure what else to do. I slowly move to put the lid back on my lunch, not wanting to make any sudden movements around this guy.

I see in my peripheral vision that he turns and looks at my diary.

“Is that the book?”

I look at him confused and he quickly turns away.

“Don’t look at me!”

I look back towards the park, not sure what else to do.

What the hell is happening?! I think to myself.

“Is that - the book?” He says again.

I’m nervous and I’m starting to get really freaked out.

“I, I don’t know what you mean…” I start.

“Don’t play games with me!” He yells through gritted teeth. “I’ve travelled a long way to find you.”

Cool, well that’s not creepy at all, I think.

I look around the park for someone to help me, but as always, it’s deserted.

He looks at me once more, but I don’t look back.

“I’ll ask you again…”

I see his hand slip under his coat as, I assume, he grips his gun, ready to shoot me at a moments notice. A shiver of panic runs through me.

“Is that…the book?”

“I…I don’t…”

I see his hand start to slowly move out from under his coat.

“Yes!” I hear myself say. “Yes it’s the book, it’s the book!”

I see him smile, and he takes his empty hand out of his coat.

Should have stayed for Jenny’s birthday lunch. I think bitterly.

“How much?”

I turn to face him again - suddenly very confused.

“What?”

He doesn’t look at me.

“How much do you want for it?”

I stare at him, dumbfounded.

“How much do I want for it?”

He turns to me.

“Don’t look at me!”

“Oh, sorry!” I say, quickly looking away. There’s a moment's silence between us as I try and figure out exactly what’s going on.

“How much do I want?” I repeat, “For this book?” I hold up my diary. “This book!?”

“I won’t ask you again, I don’t have much time, the others must be on their way soon.”

“Others?!” I ask.

He laughs, mistaking my confusion for terror.

“You should be scared little girl.”

“Excuse me” I say quite boldly, forgetting for a moment, the bizarre situation I find myself in. “Who are you calling little girl?”

What the hell am I doing!? I scold myself. Don’t provoke the man with the gun!

The man smiles for a moment, then becomes serious again.
“I know the others are coming, we don’t have long.”

“Look, Sir, you can get a diary from any…”

“ENOUGH!” He yells, cutting me off. His voice booms around the park and I look around but no one has noticed, there’s no one here. We’re completely alone.

“No more games, It’s bad enough we have to go through this charade, if I didn’t know Ilvera would send her people after me I’d just kill you myself and take it.”

My heart starts to race and my palms become sweaty - I’m suddenly aware I’m extremely out of my depth here.

What the hell is happening?!

“Yes, well,” I hear myself say. “Ilvera is very…protective.”

He sighs.

“The others will not care so much about you, or Ilvera. There are rumours she’s losing her grip on the faction.”

He looks at me and I realise he’s expecting a response.

“Well… rumours shouldn’t always be believed.”

What. Am. I. Doing?!

He nods, seemingly satisfied with this answer.

“Of course, Ilvera and I go way back, I know how strong she is. I know what she’d do to me.”

He goes quiet, obviously thinking about past run in’s with Ilvera.

I look at the man, around at the park, and back down to my diary. A million thoughts run through my head at once, mostly about how bored I am with my own life.

“Four million dollars.” I hear myself say.

The man looks at me, astonished, and then starts to laugh. It’s a deep genuine, belly laugh. I sit and wait for him to finish. He wipes tears from his eyes.


“Four million dollars, I’ve heard a lot about you, but not that you’re funny!”

“Why is that funny?” I ask indignantly.

He sighs.

“Don’t play games with me, no one has seen millions of dollars in over a century. Not since the world ran out of money back in 2050.”

I blanch as I think about what he just said.

“Not since the… hold up, did you say BACK in 2050?!”

Holy shit, this guy is a crazy person!

He looks at me sadly for a moment. “Is this why you come here? To this time? To see what we were like before we lost it all?”

I don’t know what to say to that. He sees the look on my face and nods, assuming it too mean something it definitely does not mean.

This is crazy, this can’t be real.

I consider the situation I find myself in this Wednesday lunch 2021, and something comes over me, some ridiculous bravery I neither wanted or needed.

“How much can you offer me then?”

He looks at me seriously.

“$5,000”

“$30,000.” I counter.

“Ah!” He’s getting angry. “$10,000!”

I look at the diary in my hands and then at his coat. What are the odds that this crazy man really has a gun?

I look around the park once more, trying to figure out how to make my escape. I look back at the man.

“You know what’s in this book?”

He says nothing, just nods.

“It’s very powerful.” I say.

He says nothing.

“You know how powerful this book is, don’t you?”

Again, nothing.

“Worth at least $50,000. It’s an insult you offer me less. Maybe I should take my chances with the others…”

He looks at me surprised.

“They will kill you.”

“They will try.” I say.

Jesus Christ, if I make it out of this alive, I’m burning my Game of Thrones Blu-rays.

He watches me for a what feels like a lifetime.

“$20,000.” He says. “And Ilvera owes me a favour.”

Twenty thousand dollars!!

My heart skips a beat.

“Done” I say, with more confidence than I really felt.

He looks at me once more, then reaches down at his side and picks up a briefcase. I look at it surprised.

Has that been there the whole time?

He opens it, and takes out two wads of money and places them on the bench between us. I look down at them and catch my breath. They’re two piles of one hundred dollar bills. I slowly reach down to take the money but he grabs my hand. I look up at him, scared.

“The book” He says menacingly.

I look back at the money and then at my diary. The man still hasn’t loosed his grip on my arm. I slowly hand him my diary.


God let this work, please let this work.

The man takes a hold of my book, but I don’t let go yet.

“This book is powerful, and dangerous. If the others know you have it, they’ll come after you. Put it straight in the case and lock it”

He snatches it out of my hands.

“I know what to do, I’m not an idiot”

He puts the book in the suitcase where the money was, and locks it. I look down at the money and grab it, I throw my sandwich out of my lunchbox and replace it with the money. I throw it in my bag and turn to face the man, but he’s gone. The bench is empty.

“What the….”

I look around, the park is empty.

I grab my bag and walk very quickly to the exit, but not too quickly, in case he’s still around watching. I decide to leave the park a different way to the way I came in, for the same reason.

Walking towards the exit, I replay the moments that have just transpired over and over in my head. It doesn’t feel real. I look in my handbag, checking that there is in fact, $20,000 in there. I laugh when I see it. What the hell just happened!?

I round the corner to the exit and see someone sitting on a bench further up. My heart skips a beat and I think somehow it’s the man, he’s circled back and is waiting for me, realising I’ve duped him out of $20,000. I relax a little when I see it’s just a woman reading a book.

Must be on her lunch break. Lucky she didn’t sit at the other side of the park! I muse to myself.

As I get closer, I realise she looks a little bit like me, same build, same colour hair, similar hair cut, and we’re even wearing similar clothes, jeans and a white top. As I walk past her and out of the park I see she’s not reading a book, she’s making notes in it. There are rows and rows of numbers and equations written down.

And then I see, it’s a little black book.