Short story // A girl and a bird

A girl sat on a seaside park bench crying as the raindrops were lashing her hair. Her umbrella was lying on the ground, but all she could see was the tears in her eyes. "How could this have happened to me?" she thought and kept on crying. The sadness was just too much to bear. A man walked towards her and lifted the umbrella. He sat next to her while holding the umbrella over the girl's head. "What's wrong girl? Why are you sitting here all alone letting yourself get drenched like this?" he asked. The girl answered "My boyfriend is gone!" The man gave her some tissues to dry herself and her tears and then put his coat over her shoulders. The man patted her shoulders and said "I know what you're going through, I've been there too." He looked up on the grey sky and watched how one seagull was flying in circles. "You see that seagull up there?" he asked. The girl wiped the tears off her face and carefully lifted her head up and looked at the sky. The bird kept on circling in the air while crying loudly. "That bird there must have flown here from a far away land together with its colony. But other seagulls from its colony are nowhere to be seen" said the man. "But that bird isn't worried since it knows where to go. Eventually it will find another one of its kind and mate and they will migrate south again." The girl looked up to him baffled and said "But I don't know what to do or where to go!" The man patted her on the shoulder again and said "In time you will."

The girl sat there dumbfounded as the man stood up and gave her the umbrella. He smiled at her gently. Behind his smile and each white hair of his beard showed a glimpse of his rocky past and all the storms and turmoil he had gone through in his life. The girl cried no more and just looked at the man confused of those mysterious words he had said. The man waved her goodbye and continued on his way along the coastal road. The girl just stared at his back as the man walked away. Suddenly it stopped raining and the man changed shape into a bird and began to fly. The girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief. She could no longer see the man. She scanned around the area hoping to catch a glimpse of that man's figure again but he was nowhere to be seen. She sat there not believing at all what she had witnessed. She hadn't realized that she still had the man's coat on her shoulders. Then a feather fell from the sky on her lap. She looked up to the sky and now saw two seagulls instead of one circling around each other. The sun was shining and the once grey sky was now vividly blue. Rays of light hit the droplets of water in the air forming a rainbow arching over the sea. The two seagulls flew to the sea and disappeared into the horizon. The girl stood up and as the coat fell down from her shoulders, she realized what had happened. She looked around her and saw how beautifully the wet leaves of the trees were sparkling in the sunlight. Looking at this beautiful sight she couldn't help but smile. With newfound determination she started walking down the road by the shore and went her way. The coat that was still lying on the bench turned into feathers that scattered in the wind.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/sea-ocean-water-wave-nature-2599479/
by StockSnap
CC0 Creative Commons