Incident In The Park by Meja Mwangi - A SILENT SONG AND OTHER STORIES
THE PLOT SUMMARY The short story opens with a gloomy description of the park. We meet some park loungers who waste hours on end sleeping in the park. Most of the idlers do not pay heed to the parliament and city hall clocks, and would rather loll all day doing nothing. At 1:00 , office workers come out of their offices in swarms. They are then swallowed by the sad city as they disperse in search of lunch. The idlers in the park nonchalantly watch the workers emerge from their offices, disappear into the city and even anticipate the wave of workers to return from various eateries and flood past the park back to their various offices. “The patched park was almost dead, alive only with a few idlers.” Among the idle men sitting or lying under trees and shrubs is a fruit-seller. He sits under a shrub taking stock of his sales. He mumbles and curses and lays on his back, covering his face with his bony hands. He lounges during lunch break. Maybe he is too poor to afford a meal. M...