InsaneJournal

It had been a nice day -- the sun had rambled up high into the sky and grinned down fierce enough to loosen neckties, cajole the fairer sex into shorts and skirts, cause a few daring individuals to break open the local fire hydrant, and send topsicle sales through the roof.  A few people grumbled over the heat, but the prevailing wind kept the teeth out of it and their complaints.
    Reizo was something of a grumbler by nature, but he was smart enough to keep to the high ground where the winds could find him, or to the shade when available.  He’d been lucky enough to find a spot with both after poking around the park, and was now something of a regular.

Reizo sat on a bench, long arms slung over the back and head reclined, wriggling a topsicle stick between his teeth and staring up into the leaves of the tree he was sitting under.  Occasionally he’d lift a hand up towards the tree and turn it ‘round in the dappling shadow and peer hard at it, lips curled down in a frown.  Other times he’d take a call, flipping open his phone and rumbling short and sweet into it, but mostly he reclined on the bench, looking at the tree or his hand or the kid’s baseball game in the field behind him or at the pond.

The pond was small and well kept and across the stone walkway from the bench.  It glistened lazily in the sun, lapped gently at its shallow shores, and kept its fat, feathered inhabitants happy.  Ducks drifted on its surface, quacking sporadically, sending up small ripples that slid smoothly across the glossy top, distorting the reflections of the sun and tree.

Reizo hunched over, long legs jutting up into the air and hands dangling between them, watching the ducks swim and waddle just at the edge of the pond.  He reached to the brown bag at his side, bag crinkling as he reached inside, and produced a loaf of stale bread.  He broke off a piece, considered smushing it in his hand and doing his best to peg a duck with it, but settled on tossing it on the bank and watching the duck’s scrabble over to it and squabble with one another to get it.