Hugh walked into the park and
made his way along the path, until he came to a bench. Unlike most
people, Hugh didn’t view nature as being particularly beautiful or
attractive, he just found it interesting to watch the squirrels
that scrabbled their way up trees, the sparrows that pecked at the
ground, the children squealing in delight as pigeons feasted on
mouldy bits of bread, the fox chasing a rabbit, the worms being
ripped out of the ground by foraging birds, the lion feasting on an
exhausted gazelle, the creaking, splitting sound of a felled tree,
and the whine of rusted hinges on an old dustbin lid.
It was all the same to him.
Boredom was the only thing that
had brought him here, something that happened on a fairly regular
basis, and the fact that the park was a public place afforded him
the unexpected bonus of anonymity. The presence of so many people
meant that it was easier for him to ignore them, and in that
respect it was similar to the Internet, except that the park had
more bird shit.
He turned his head slightly to
the right, and then shifted his eyes so he could get a good look at
the girl sitting about a foot away from him. An earphone was jammed
into the side of her head, whilst her hair was dyed a solid, bright
red colour, and fell down to her shoulders in a way that exuded an
aura of sex. Her nose had a small piercing in it, not much more
than a silver zit on the left nostril. Her fingers dabbled and
swept nimbly over the front of her smartphone, something that
piqued his interest. He couldn’t actually see what was on her
screen, but that wasn’t what he was looking at; her fingers had a
deftness to them that could be put to better use if they were
fondling and caressing him as they lay naked in bed.
