Just a walk in the park, Allyson Shaw

If no-one saw it, then did it even happen? Drawing a parallel to today’s world of fake news and disputed science, writes about three people squabbling

over the truth of an event.

I t was a very ordinary time to take a stroll in the city park. The bits of green and stumpy trees created a fairly pleasant backdrop to an otherwise grey concrete stroll. It was dusk and those who walked the park appeared like shadows. Usual shadows, who traced about their own thoroughfares. -

In the western quadrant, there were just three people: Eda, Garrett and Hector.

The three meandered back and forth, not so far apart given the urban size of the park. They’d each wandered away from the routines of others. Isolated enough that you could fit the three in one shot.

And so, picture them all within a few metres of the largest yellowwood tree when it happened.

I cannot say what, but Garrett was struck by something, and fell in the dirt that skirted the tree’s trunk.

Eda, being a reasonable and respectable member of society, rushed over to aid the fallen stranger in a panicked trot. She shifted her leather bag onto one shoulder, and Garrett, a middle-aged slightly squat man in nylon shorts, was helped to his feet. The man gazed wide-eyed into the corners of the park, catching his breath in the dry air.

He watched Eda look to the sky, and the way the buttons in her blazer flashed in the lamp light. She moved to peer into the scarce umbrage of the tree, her eyebrows knitted together. What was she seeing?

Taking Eda’s lead, Garrett looked upwards too. “It came from up there you think?” “Nothing is there now—yes definitely this one—I thought I saw something,” she replied.

She put her hand to the trunk and continued to search — for what? Garrett wondered. Some sign of his attack? She came up empty.

Eda interrupted Garrett’s musings: “Since we cannot explain the situation, beyond reasonable doubt, then maybe we are picturing things. Who can say what actually happened if nobody—” she petered off, fiddling with her ID tag, and leaving her thoughts unspoken. Logic and reason ruled Eda’s life.

“I definitely felt something”, Garrett placed his left palm over the sore spot in his right shoulder blade, and paused. “But I do believe you are right—about this tree.”

He stood and stared but with one eye on Eda. She peered back through the park and towards St James Station, the great tower, Queen Victoria Building, and all the rest, as if she would leave. There was silence.

“No no no, you are seeing it all wrong my friends!” A set of animated hands appeared out of the near darkness. “A small beast burst from the ground, rose up from below, and its tail brushed the sir’s head on its way back into the ground!” Hector came over to the pair, hunched but full of spirit. He had the appearance of a once tall man, who was now bent over with age.

Garrett watched the elderly man as he brought his hands to a halt in front of his chest, fingers just touching, awaiting their response.

“Yes, that’s right, it came from the sky.” Garrett looked to Eda with a nod. Eda just shifted the weight of her bag.

“No no please listen, I think, I am sure, it came from below — young man, listen to me.”

“Exactly, it hit my shoulder blade—so of course we should be looking at the above. Old man, I think you are just muddling your words.” He giggled and smiled warmly towards Eda but Eda did not return his sentiment.

“Hear me! Please, I saw it.” Hector looked distraught, but Garrett just smiled and looked back to the tree. Almost mimicking Eda in the way he studied the branches.

Eda just looked at the two of them. “Could you really believe that a beast sprung from the ground just to strike you? You believe this old man—” Eda started to back away from the shade cast by the tree. “You are both as bad as each other, and besides, none of us are true eye witnesses—” She looked around the area. Possibly trying to spot an applicable security camera.

“But surely you believe me, right, Miss?” The man in cardigans looked towards Eda. “My words seem not to be muddled to you?”

Garrett was just an audience member in the cinema now.

“If you are saying because the dear man saw nothing, and I, the only other person close enough saw nothing, then nothing can be proved? Yes, yes I stand with you.” She paused, then waved her arms, as if freeing herself from night bugs. “It’s all circumstantial, I think that is where we can leave it.”

There was again silence.

The old man was the one to break it. “He did have his back turned, exactly! That is how the beast found its opportunity.” Hector had his once so lively arms crossed now.

The audience spoke up: “I did not see it, you both are right.” Garrett paused, in thought. “—but I think something happened still, I felt it, therefore it did happen. Surely that is understandable.”

Apparently, it was not.

Hector, with great effort, crouched to the floor, touching the tufts of grass with his gnarled fingers. “I am sure it dove in right here, see this spot, where the grass seems disturbed?”

Garrett looked to Eda, who returned his gaze. Pictures: Lucia Mai

Then in unison, they stared down at their sneaker-clad feet.

Garrett helped Hector rise, and the three of them stood together facing the heart of the cemented park. Their walks thoroughly interrupted now, and turning into night-time strolls. As one, they exhaled.

“Ouch”

“Argh!”

“Not again—”