2005-05-19
Wherever The Wind Prompts?

The sun grins down happily on the bright, dewy grass and the small girl laying among it. Her arms move up and down as though she were making angels in the grass, sending plastic bracelets on her arm click-clacking. The wind breathes sweetly upon her, stirring her golden hair across the grass. Her arms stop in mid swing and she turns her head the same direction the wind blows her hair. She stares at an empty spot and sighs. She presses her hands against the ground to propel herself into a sitting position. She leans back on her arms, and stares past her bare toes toward the eastern horizon.

The wind stirs and blows a stray dandelion spore to tickle her ear. The girl leans her ear down and shrugs her shoulder up to meet it as she smiles and giggles slightly at the faint touch. The wind carries the spore away from her ear, and she straightens her head to watch it dance merrily along the breeze to faraway places.

But it doesn't go anywhere far away. The wind drops it quietly on an open notebook laying close by the girl's sun bleached-denim covered leg. Her smile drops into a frown as she shifts her weight and moves her hand to trace the page with her pencil.

Her frown grows into perplexity as she peruses the idle words she's scribbled back and forth. Aborted poems and stories mingle with the beautiful bits of memory she recorded. Even now, she sighs and shudders to think on them.

But a half phrase wasn't her goal. Her head aches from the sun glaring down at her and her failed attempts and promises. She scowls a little at the bright spots he burns on the paper. She can't reach any goal this way.

She turns away from the notebook, flips onto her stomach and buries her face in the grass. She inhales deeply, taking in the smell of the springtime earth and fresh green grass. She laughs blithely at a thought chasing across her head. She turns slightly and whispers an apology to the merry sun. She continues to hold converse with the elements, and whispers to them about a certain boy she plans on having over to this spot with her. She chatters on about little plans of "picnics and kisses and such," the thought of which fill her so with glee, that she must pause to giggle over and over. With every delighted giggle, she nigh shoves her nose in the dirt.

The wind nudges her again and the rustling of notebook pages distracts her attention. She sighs, but then thinks a moment. She shakes her head and lets out a laugh, then snatches up the notebook and crushes it beneath her.

She lays on the ground, playing dead for a moment, then springs to her feet and dashes away up wooden stairs. She disappears.

A cloud pushes past the sun's face a moment as he winks at the wind. And the sun grins down happily...

before & & after