Chapter 2: Photographs and Realizations


He breathed in the city air, everybody he passed seemed to be in a good mood
He pulled out his always faithful Casio Qv-R62 Digital Camera
It was one of the few things in his life he never had any problems with, it never let him down
He snapped photos of the city streets, a squrele, a freakishly large fountain, a taxi, the park, a duckboat, the big dig, a freight train...just about everything
He only stopped shooting when an alarm went off signaling that the memory card was full
When that happened he found himself back at the park
He decided to sit down under a tree flip though the days photos
He went back to the ones of the park, a man painting on a canvas, the squirrel, flowers, a chickadee, and one where he stood on a bench a shot the whole park.
I was then he saw something familiar, he clicked the zoom in button and focused in on the lower right corner of the photo
There they were again, the same couple he saw from earlier, they were siting on a park bench, turned and faceting each other
He looked up to where he park bench was, the couple was still there
They holding both of each others hands, both simileing
He could not hear what they were saying for he was too far away, but they were both blushing
The boy decided to watch them for a moment, "Something seems different between them..." he thought
The couple sat and talked for a while, their faces flushing over and over again
Whatever they were talking about quickly became more heated, they seemed to slowly be moving closer to each other
At the end of the discussion the man did something that made the woman's eyes tear up,
he got down one knee, pulled a ring box out of his pocket, and asked her to marry him, she jumped into his arms
They were both so happy, both blushing, both smiling, and both had silent tears running down their faces
The man pulled away and though the boy could not hear them, he could tell what the last two things they said were from their lips:
"Is that a yes?" asked the man
"Yes it is..." answered the woman, she then pulled him into a warm kiss, and then, they walked off, arms intertwined
The boy with the black winter hat just stared at the bench where the couple had previously been
He could not believe what he has just witnessed
He considered hallucination, but quickly dissmised it
"What the fuck just happened?!?" he thought
As corny as it sounds, to be in love and be loved is the only thing he ever really wanted out of life
Accepting that there was no such thing as real love anymore was very hard for him
Like accepting the death of a family member,
and only recently had he realized that not having real love is what had made him feel so lonely for all this time
and up until now he had never seen any evidence to go against it
Its not that he did not like being wrong, in fact he couldest care less
But what did this mean for him?
Could he still be saved from his misery?
His mind was realing with questions and he did not feel close to finding any answers
He did not understand, was what he just saw real feelings?
No, it couldn't be true
Not after all that he had seen been though
But than a thought occurred to him
They were a few years older than him,a whole other generation
That couples generation must have been the last of the ones with true feelings in their heats
Before the whole materialistic thing took over
"Heh, I just missed the last of it...by a few years..."
He did not like that answer that he came up with, but made his turbulent mind rest just a little easyer
He stuffed his camera in his bag, deciding he would copy the photos onto his laptop later
For now, he was exhausted, his walk around the entire city had taken more out of him than he had thought
And it was getting dark
He leaned back against the tree
He was tall for his age so he may pass for a short 18 year old and get a room somewhere
But, alas, he could not, for he had already fallen asleep

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His mind was in a fog, he thought he could hear voices
"Who is this kid?"
"Idonno. A bum?"
"Naw, look at the dude's clothes, washed clean"
The air temperature had dropped, it must be late at night
He felt a hand move to his zune, he tightened his grip on it
"An' looka that nice player! Expensive."
He kept his eyes closed to make it look like he was still asleep
"He must be late getting home"
"His bag is pretty big for just a trip around town..." he snapped his fingers "I bet you $5 hes a runaway"
The Boy smiled to himself, "Looks like you won..." he thought
He slowly opened up his eyes to the sight of two late-night skateboarders in their mid-20s
He looked at his watch, 2:31 am
"Good morning" he said slowly wakening up, his head was still foggy
The one who was bending down to look at him had a confused look on his face
"What did he call me?" he asked his companion
The boy suddenly realized he was speaking in German, he did that sometimes when he was trying to wake up
God did he hate wakening up
The boy slowly stood up,"Sorry, all I said was good morning."
The second boy had mischievous smile on his face as he looked at his friend
"Looks like you owe me $5" he said "Hes from another country"
He sholedred his backpack, "Actually, you owe him $5, I am a runaway, I just speak German"
And with that he started out of the park
As he left the park he could hear the skateboarders talking: "Uuhh...we never shook on it"
He walked back to the cobblestone streets where he had seen all the stores the day before
A surprising number of them were still open
He saw the lights on in a bookstore and walked in
"Why the hell would they have a bookstore open a 3am??" he thought
He smiled seeing that they had the latest edition of Popular Science on a rack near the door
"Well I guess I shouldn't complain" He said to himself picking up the magnetize
He wandered around the store until he found the Anime section
There he found the Manga he was looking for: "Naruto" volume 13
"Finaly! Its out!" He thought
He walked over to the counter and grabbed a Red-maroon plaid pattern bookmark with a maroon tassel, off the rack
The price rang up, he handed over the cash, and proceeded to walk up a spiral stair case he had seen ealryer. The second floor still had yet more books and maigizens on shelves but in the middle of the room the was a large, square coffee table. It was surrounded by comfy, overstuffed couches and chairs.
He sat down In a one person love seat and opened up to the first page of "Naruto:Volume 13"