I was in a bleak mood when I arrived at a fast food joint to have a late lunch. I’d been down all day and I didn’t see much chance of the dark cloud lifting — but I wasn’t counting on Allie and Ella.
The restaurant had a “bouncy house” out front for children today. Cousins Allie and Ella are granddaughters of one of the managers here, so they had come to jump around for awhile. As I arrived, I stopped to talk with their grandmother, who was watching them play. I’d met 7-year-old Allie a couple of times before, but 4-year-old Ella was new to me.
Ella wasn’t a stranger long. I had been watching them for mere seconds when she announced to me that she’s crazy and she loves puppies. After I showed her pictures of Lucy, she acted as though we had been friends for life.
Then they were jumping in the bouncy house for me, each one trying to do stunts to out-do the other — each one wanting to have my attention. And as I watched and talked with them and then laughed with these little girls, I couldn’t help but notice that my dark mood was brightening.
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
Society needs storytellers to help make sense of a changing world
My bad teen poetry suggests I’ve always hungered for missing love
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone