Jeremy C Kester

“Waiting”
a short story (vignette) by Jeremy C Kester

A woman waits for someone she agreed to meet…
Note: See end for copyright, notes, and other restrictions/permissions, including the inspiration for the story and my thoughts on it.

Alone she sat. Waiting. Fortunately the weather was cool. Not so intolerable in one temperature or another. It was just… cool. It made for ease in that task. Sitting and biding time before she expected not to be alone any longer. As if being in the presence of another would truly resolve that state of being.

They both agreed to the spot. And the day. Thankfully, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Sun shone bright, although clouds appeared far off on the horizon.

She watched others walk by. Each absorbed in their own worlds — their lives. No awareness of the others around them moving along in the complex ritual of life. All things forgotten except their own tasks. But her. She knew of the others and watched them. All too aware of their proximity to her. Each a chance of being the one she waited for. Of being a change to banish the feeling that plagued her.

Absently, she checked the time on her watch. Clouds moved overhead, bringing with it a chill that took the temperature to the edge of what she liked. They were late. It mattered little though. They would come still, that she was certain. The ritual repeated until the act itself meant little more than a glance at an object that existed on her wrist. An act without meaning other than to perform it.

She sat, unknowing of the time that left, moving on to other tasks itself. Light bowed away allowing night to take hold. Cold settled in. Those who once busied themselves walking along the paths in front of her vanished to whatever existence they understood. Only hope remained. She shivered, unknowing whether it was from the chill in the air or the state of her being. Yet, she held onto that hope, willing that someday as she sat there, the one she was meant to meet would come there, too. That she would no longer find herself alone.

Copyright © 2022 by Jeremy C Kester – all rights reserved
Do not copy or reproduce without written permission.
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This story came to me as I sat waiting myself for someone, though not for the same reasons. I came to imagine a scene with a woman who sat waiting for a someone who would never come. We may never know why that person didn’t come, or for how long the woman sat there waiting.