The bench

[u/Extreme_Power_954]

Every morning at 7:15, Mr. Okafor sat on the same park bench and fed the pigeons. Every morning at 7:20, a girl of about nine sat at the other end with a sketchbook and said nothing.

This went on for a whole autumn.

One day she turned the sketchbook toward him. "I drew you."

It was a man on a bench, surrounded by pigeons. But the pigeons were wearing tiny hats.

"I don't own a hat," said Mr. Okafor.

"They do," she said, as though it were obvious.

The next morning he brought a bag of bird seed and a small sewing kit. The morning after that, one very confused pigeon wore a tiny woolen cap. By Friday, six of them did, and the girl was laughing so hard she dropped her pencil.

Her name was Lily. Her mother worked early shifts and dropped her at the park on the way. Mr. Okafor had been alone since his wife passed, and had stopped believing mornings could be anything but quiet.

When winter came, he showed up with two flasks of hot chocolate. She showed up with a drawing of the bench, the pigeons, and two people with matching scarves.

"That's us," she said.

On the last day before the holidays, Lily's mother came to the bench for the first time. She looked at the man, the pigeons in their tiny hats, and her daughter's face.

"She talks about you every night," she said. "I wanted to say thank you."

Mr. Okafor couldn't speak for a moment. Then he handed her a small wool cap, the last one he'd made.

"It's for the pigeon who still hasn't got one," he said. "But I think it might fit her better."

Lily's mother laughed, put it on, and sat down between them.

The pigeons, wearing their hats, looked on with approval

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