It was a crisp spring day. One of those where the sky is a pale, stunning blue; free of clouds and dancing with a light breeze. The kind of day where it’s warm in the sunlight, but a light jacket might be needed. One where the breeze brings with it a hint of the summer weather to come. The trees had exploded into greenery and the smell of freshly cut grass had begun to drift through the air. It was the first truly sunny day in a long while and he was determined that they were going to enjoy it.
Leaving the house was a messy affair, which was nothing new. She had had a hard time finding her shoes, and then when she did, she didn’t want to wear them anymore. When he told her that she needed shoes if they were going to go to the park, the idea of playing outside won her over and she happily agreed that the shoes could go on her feet. He had waited patiently as she tried to do them up herself, eventually helping her after she’d gotten as far as she could. He placed a kiss on top of her head and then holding hands they headed out the door.
She was bouncing down the street, curious about everything. He loved that about kids her age, they wanted to learn about anything and everything. A few weeks he’d shown her a dandelion for the first time and it had sent her in a fit of giggles and now every time they passed one she would point at the weed and exclaim excitedly:
“Dandyion Daddy! Dandyion!”
She saw one on their way to the park and wandered over to it, dragging him along with her. She pointed at it just like always and with a big smile on her face looked up at him.
“Dandyion!”
He knelt down, picked it and handed it to her. She instantly starting blowing puffs of air at it causing it to jump around. She giggled.
“You.” She thrust the flower in his face. He dutifully blew on the weed, sending a cloud of the little seeds swirling into the breeze. She giggled and clapped her chubby hands. He started laughing too. The worries that had been crowding his mind seemed to shift, their hold didn’t feel quite as strong.
He picked her another flower. “Come on,” he said handing it to her. “Let’s go to the park.”
“O-tay.”
And they were off again. She held her dandelion tightly in her little fist. With each gust of wind, a few of the seeds flew away making her giggle and with each one he felt another worry drift away.
sweet – upping % of time spend out-of-doors.
That’s really cute! 😀
Thank you!
The anonymity of the two characters’ names was a good choice. At the beginning I was a little confused by it, but since you didn’t introduce another character, it worked to your advantage.
For one thing, this line really grabbed me, “He dutifully blew on the weed…” This shows the sign of a mature artist. It is something a lot of people might observe, and it’s something that has been said many times, but it was employed as the height of the story. It was archetypal, and it related well to me.
A meditation of this kind is what writing is supposed to be. I hope you understand that. You took the focus off of yourself, and made a real world observation. It certainly was emulated, but that’s what good artists do. They don’t always produce “Original” work, but they learn to hone their skills to capture observations already seen in the real world.
You’re showing signs of a mature artist. Thank you for posting this! 🙂
Wow! Thank you so much! Your comment means a lot!