It's a beautiful day, and I decide to take my lunch over to the municipal park a block away from my office. I let the receptionist know where I'm going in case there's some sort of emergency, and step out into the sunlight.
I'm a software engineer (yes, some of us are girls) so I'm in my usual summer work uniform of sneakers, shorts and a t-shirt with something clever splashed across the front. Lunch is a sandwich and an apple, I grabbed a bottle of water from the company fridge on my way out, and I've got a novel to read while I eat.
For once I'm taking my lunch break around the same time as everyone else does, and with the weather so nice, the sidewalks are pretty busy. The chain sandwich place at on the ground floor of my building is jam packed and it looks like the sidewalk cafes are doing pretty good too.
I navigate the crowds until the sidewalk splits into the park entrance. The park is pretty busy too, and all the picnic tables seem taken, so I find a good shade tree where I can see the ducks, brush off a spot, and settle on the ground. Digging through my backpack I pull out my food and my book and proceed to eat lunch, the yells of the kids from the nearby playground a welcome background noise.
Soon enough I'm done eating and I put my stuff away, watching a couple of scout ants investigating my apple core. Before they can call in the artillery, I grab it and my backpack and go hunting for a trash can. I've still got half an hour of lunch break left, so after I throw away my trash I snag an empty seat on one of the benches that line the jogging path through the park. My benchmate is some sort of business lady, tapping away on her phone, half of a takeout salad sitting on the bench next to her.
I lean back and enjoy the feeling of the sunshine while I watch the various park visitors go about their business. Some of the dude joggers are looking pretty good, though I try not to gawk. It's kind of weird, though, the ratio is way off. There have to be five ladies running for every guy. Looking around the park, the same thing seems to hold true for everyone else. In fact, while I watch, I see more than one guy who's eating lunch with a woman get up and walk towards the park entrance. Looking in that direction there's a veritable stream of men leaving, and no one coming in to the park is male.
This is beyond weird, but when I start to get up to go ask one of the guys what's happening, a strange sort of lassitude suddenly settles on me, and I stay where I am.
"You noticed."
I turn, and the business lady sharing my bench is looking at me with a puzzled expression. "I didn't think anyone could notice. Is it because you're sitting so close to me? Say something."
I try, but I can't bring myself to speak, I just look at here while the joggers continue to thump past us.
"Huh. Well, you still go under, so I guess it doesn't matter." Turning her attention away from me, she scans the park before looking towards the entrance as the last few men exit.
She closes her eyes, and her brow furrows in an attitude of intense concentration. Almost at once, the joggers all come to a halt at the same time. In fact, no one in the park seems to be moving, until they turn towards the bench we're sitting on and make their way over, until a loose crowd of women surrounds us for a couple of dozen feet in every direction.
"Pair up." says the business lady in a loud, carrying voice. An asian jogger that stopped near us moves over to me and I nod up at her from my seat. All around us, women are pairing to stand close to one another.
"Spread out a little."
The crowd around us thins a little bit as the couples move to put some distance between themselves and the adjacent pairs. My jogger just stays next to me and puts her hand on my shoulder, and I just stay seated on the bench, still unable to bring myself to get up.
The business lady is looking at us all a little wide eyed, and is panting slightly.