The Park

Written for my Creative Writing: Fiction class. We were assigned to write a short story.

Green grass. Jovial screams. Boisterous laughter. The sun is shining bright. It’s hard not to find joy in a place like this. She can see and hear it all from the window. She’s excited, revved up and ready to go. The minivan circles the parking lot. “There’s a spot!” She points out loudly. “There’s another!” Her dad keeps driving, ignoring her except for a simple but quiet, “mhm”. “Dad, you missed another!” She’s complaining now, not seeing the point of this aimless dance her dad is doing with the parking lot. The small girl turns her head from the window and looks into the rear view mirror to observe her father’s face.

Her dad is looking around diligently. There is no rush to his movements. “What are you looking for?” “What do you mean ‘what am I looking for’? I’m looking for a place to park.” She leans forward and looks confusedly at her dad. “There’s a spot there.” She points to the same spot by the entrance that she pointed to before.

“It’s not good enough.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s too bright.”

“Oh.” She sits back in her seat and replicates the way her dad is looking around the parking lot. She spots a tree that provides a little shade over the spot. “Look there’s one.” “We can do better.” She looks across the parking lot, seeing nothing but poor shading. ‘Sure we can’ she thinks to herself sarcastically. She decides at that moment to keep her mouth shut and just let her father tire himself out looking for a spot with acceptable shading.

He winds up and down the parking lot until they are seemingly at the end. They turn down onto a dirt path. She looks over her shoulder through the back windshield. The park looks so far away and distant. Like an oasis in the middle of a desert. She can’t but help feel dejected as the screams of children like her fade into the distance. She looks to her left and sees several tennis courts and a baseball field. She didn’t even know there was a baseball field here.

The sounds are different around this side of the park. There isn’t as much laughter and there aren’t any screams. There are rhythmic sounds of balls hitting fences, bats, and rackets. Every once in a while there is a roar of clapping and chanting from the baseball field. It’s musical in a completely different way than the playground.

She spots a big tree providing plenty of shade over three spots next to the baseball field. “Look dad!” She eagerly points to the tree. “Park there!” Her dad scoffs. “No no. Last thing I need is a cracked window because some kid doesn’t know how to catch.”

She frowns. Her dad was putting way too much thought into a simple parking spot. The path transforms back into regular pavement and she realizes that he has turned again. He makes another right hand turn. She has to crane her neck to see it, but there is a soccer field to her left. The grass is a vibrant shade of green and it makes the field itself seem so far away. Her dad is driving very slowly but she still notices when he comes to a complete stop. She knows they are in the middle of the street but she can’t help but get her hopes up that he has decided to park.

Alas, her hopes are dashed when she realizes that he has only stopped because a teenager is retrieving his basketball and has to cross the street to do so.

She hasn’t noticed it until now but on her right there are a series of basketball courts. The courts are just as elevated as the soccer field so she can hardly make out other than people’s legs and the base of the baskets themselves.

‘It’s like a whole other world back here’ she thinks to herself.

Her dad continues his unhurried drive through the seemingly endless park. The hill that held the soccer field drops off and becomes a flower field.

Her father starts sneezing maniacally and she hopes that he might turn around and find somewhere else to park because of this. Instead he just rolls the minivan’s windows and mutters a simple, “damn pollen”.

The flower clearing is expansive. It feels neverending. Just like this drive. She begins to grow bitter and agitated with her father. ‘Why does he need the perfect shading? The car is going to get hotter no matter what. It’s not even worth it. Why couldn’t he just be happy with parking under that big tree near the baseball field. No one was going to play catch with our car.’

She decides to let her grievances be heard. “This is boring. I just want to play in the park.”

“And you will. As soon as I find an adequate parking spot.”

She slumps back in her seat dejectedly.

The parking lot comes into view and she peers up hoping that maybe there is a spot exactly like what her dad is looking for there. A holy grail of parking spots. Suddenly her dad turns left before they even enter the parking lot. The path is grass that has been worn over by many cars passing through.

‘He can’t be serious’ she thinks to herself. ‘He didn’t even give this parking lot a shot.’

In the next instant it was much darker. She could no longer clearly make out the tire tracks on the grass road. She could no longer feel the sun on her skin. Looking around she realized that the grass road led them to a cover of trees. In the middle of this grove of trees was a parking lot.

A glorious, shaded, parking lot. She sighs involuntarily in relief.

Her father pulled into the first spot that was free and shut off the engine. “See. That wasn’t too bad.”

“No, I thought we’d never find a parking spot.”

He lets out a hearty laugh. “You doubted me?”

Bashfully, she nods her head.

“When I know what I want I make sure I get it. What about you, what do you want?”

“To go to the park!” All of her energy is back. Now reinvigorated by having found an acceptable parking spot.

“Then we shall go to the park.”