Nostalgia English

 Nostalgia

By Joana Angelides

For a few days I have been watching a nice old lady with white hair, leaning on a stick.

She always comes into the park at 4pm at the lower Belvedere and always sits on the same bench a little away from the entrance. She sits down and holds her face up towards the sun and smiles. She wears a little playful hat and sunglasses. Every now and then she sprinkles some birdseed and small sparrows come over immediately, as if they were waiting for her and peck up the food. In itself it is supposed to be forbidden to spread food like that in the park, but she doesn't seem to care.

She always sits there for about 1 hour, then gets up and slowly walks towards the exit.

She piqued my curiosity and I sat down next to her a few days ago. Not only did I notice her, the park supervisor slowly comes over every time and it seems that he is watching her too. He sweeps away the dust and the falling leaves a little and collects the things that some simply drop. He always hums a little melody softly to himself. He seems to be a very happy, even-tempered person. I think I recognized the melody, it is Johann Strauss's Kaiserwalzer.

When the old lady crosses her legs, it seems to me that she is bobbing one leg to the tune, or she is bobbing her head a little. Apparently she hears the melody too and she likes it. The parking attendant always walks past slowly and moves away again to dump the manure into one of the wastebasket, then starts all over again.

"You know the melody the old man is humming?" I gathered all my courage.

“Yes, it reminds me of a young man with whom I used to dance to this melody. But that was a very, very long time ago! ", She smiled dreamily.

"What became of the young man?" I asked curiously.

“Oh, I don't know. One day he somehow disappeared. But I never forgot him! ", She smiled to herself again.

We were silent for a while and she went away, like every day.

I sat there a little longer and watched the parking attendant. He had just finished his tour, picked up his broom and shovel, and was about to leave.

I got up and went to him.

"Excuse me, may I ask you something?"

"Yes, what do you want to know?", He took off his cap and ran his hand through his gray hair.

“Apparently you are the parking attendant here and I've been watching you for some time now. Whenever the old lady comes and takes a seat, she shows up and starts cleaning up the gravel! They hum the same waltz over and over again. When she leaves, will you go too? I find that striking. I notice something like that, I'm a journalist, ”I added by way of explanation.

“Well, I'm not a parking attendant. I have been overseas for many, many years, where I sought and found my happiness. Now I have returned to my hometown and by chance I met my old love again, this same old lady. In all these decades I have not been able to forget her, but have lost sight of her. Now I live in Vienna again and enjoy these few moments to be near you! "

"Why don't you speak to her, make yourself known?"

“No, I don't have the courage!” He shook his head. He put his cap back on and turned away.

I heard him mutter:

"Maybe, someday, maybe !?", then he walked away slowly.

e-Books
There are numerous short stories, several novels and poems by Joana Angelides! Almost everything summarized in e-books! Delight to read for little money!

https://www.bookrix.de/-joanavienna/