Brighton Heights Park, Brighton Heights: 618 Brighton Woods Road
A woman and child are downhill at the small playground. The distinctive creak and screech of swings rising and falling floats through the silence. I walk a loop from the closed and empty swimming pool past each athletic field; there are no games, practice sessions, kicking or throwing a ball for fun, dog walkers or joggers, there aren’t even any teenagers sitting on the picnic tables or bleachers, faced pointed to their phones.
The creak and screech follows me as I wander through the nearly deserted landscape, and I feel like I’ve stumbled into a post-apocalyptic game of Hide-and-Seek. But I’m unsure of my role. Should I search, or should I hide? In horror films and fantasy-adventure books, the villain often uses a mocking, sing-song tone to taunt and scare: “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Saccharine. Sly.
But today, there are no monsters at Brighton Heights Park, so I speak quietly and calmly like I’m cajoling a much-adored pet that’s gone hiding or a loving parent searching for their wayward children. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Caring. Compassionate.
I return to my car, the only one in the parking lot, and before leaving, look toward the playground; the woman and child are still soaring through the air, marking time like a pendulum.
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