Below is a bit of fiction I decided to post for fun. Hope you enjoy the recess from factual blogs.
"They're magic!" she said looking up at her mother with wheat colored eyes. Trickles of rain slowly edging down her round cheeks.
She brushes the wet strands of brown hair carelessly out of her eyes and attempts clumsily to push them back under the hood of her faded green rain slicker.
Without much cause she begins to swing her knobby legs back and forth in a scissor pattern to barely brush the tops of small puddles beneath her. Landing each progressive step adeptly beyond the edge of every one never actually disturbing the pure reflective surface.
Her mother, a woman aged more than her actual years, smiles sadly down at her while fighting a loosing battle with the opening mechanism of her dull grey umbrella.
"Nicki,
hunny, how are they magic?" She gives up the fight and begins to push the used stroller with the hand holding the now dead and useless umbrella.
"They just are." Nicki clicks her tongue off the roof of the back of her mouth in a sing song rhythm.
After checking quickly the traffic flow from both left and right and grabbing Nicki's hand in her free one, she does a shove-lift motion with the stroller to cross the street now packed with rush hour cars. Her nervous looks in both directions showing her mistrust of the attention the drivers of the cars are paying to any pedestrian.
"Come on Nicki, we are crossing the street and you know ..."
"I know, I know.
Cell phones, cups of coffee, and hands free.
When I cross the road, no one has attention enough to pay to me.
Walk quickly and pay attention, otherwise this little girl will become part of their dual suspension."
She sings this rhyme and shakes her head from side to side while pulling on her mother's grip. She ends it in a loud vibrato with her face turn skyward and her tongue stuck out catching rain drops while those pesky strands of hair make a break for freedom from her slicker once again.
Her mother was forced to laugh. Such freedom is a part of her past. The carefree manner Nicki has is all from her, or was before Earl. Then after Earl came Nicki, a blessing and the only good thing Earl will ever create. Then there was Jacob and his Trans Am, and then poor little Shelly came. Shelly who never got to see her first birthday. Always struggling for each breath she ever got in life. After Shelly was taken from her Josh came sniffing around, and unfortunately Jake came sniffing around for Josh. Jake won. So following that bit of strangeness came Sue, or actually Terrance. He had a thing for Johnny Cash and insisted he be called Sue. It was cute at the time, but as soon as she missed her period, Sue gone and went. So now it was just her, Nicki, and Devin. Her best friends and her passion in life.
Nicki and Devin. Didn't matter she worked at Taco Bell and lived in a crap apartment hoping her name will eventually make it to the top of the section eight waiting list. She had them both. The two best things she will ever do in life. The two most perfect lives she was determined to give every opportunity she could to.
"So if the boots are magic then what can they do? Can they, turn me and Devin into... frogs?" She said in a playful manner while lifting the stroller once again over the curb of the sidewalk.
Nicki was quite, but she had a devilish grin on her face as though she were contemplating the pleasure of turning her baby brother into a croaking little frog.
"
Nooo." Nicki said in a giggle.
The rain began to fall a little more heavily and she became worried that Devin would catch a cold again. She let go of Nicki's hand and bent over the stroller to rearrange the small rain slicker she had placed over him. As she peaked under the little brown rubber jacket she could see the startlingly deep brown eyes of Devin staring up at her. Those beautiful eyes that she knew would one day get her little angel into a LOT of trouble with some teenage girl. He smiled at her and filled her heart with the pleasure only a mother seeing the happy face of her loved child can feel.
How could she have ever thought she was in love with any of those men? She never truly knew love until the day Nicki came into her life. Then Shelly reminded her of that love, but also taught her the greatest pain she would ever know. She thought she would never be able to feel that good, that kind of love again. Her heart had ripped and it seemed it could no longer hold any emotion anymore. Any emotion that is, except for pain. Then Devin came, and it was like a hand was placed over her torn heart and the rip was gone. He brought that love back. That feeling that was greater than any she had ever known, or would ever know. Devin reminded her of how much she loved Nicki and how much Nicki needed her to be a mom, not a heartbroken shadow.
Nicki was her special little girl, but Devin was her savior. She would not know for many years but the love she gave to both Nicki and Devin would come back to her when she needed it most. Nicki would once again carry her and care for her mother as though the mother were the child and the child the mother. Devin would once again be her savior. She would see her children's happiness and success, and then experience the selfless love they had for their mother when she would reach the last of her life. When cancer would teach both Nicki and Devin the lesson of pain their mother learned when little Shelly lost her struggle. Too soon they would loose her, but for now there she was. Smiling her sad smile down at little Devin.
"Can they make you, um, fly?" She stood up and they began to walk forward again.
Nicki began to twirl letting the bottom of her slicker fan out to the fullest extent a stiff rain coat can.
"
Nooooo, mommy they can't make you fly. That's silly."
The rain lets up just a little and a tall man with high cheek bones, jaundiced eyes, deep amber skin and a
scraggly beard walks by offering a grin in greetings.
"Then I give up Nicki. What CAN these magic boots do?" She spreads both hands out from her sides in an exaggerated expression of confusion. A tiny grin dancing at the very tip of her mouth.
Nicki stops and screws her small mouth into a purse and angles her eyebrows sharply downward until they touch. Giving a look of deep and painful concentration. She rests her hands on her hips and looks up at her mother.
"Mommy, they're magic because no matter what..." she looks confused and seems to feel she picked the wrong words.
"...no matter where I am, they ALWAYS bring me back home to you."
Nicki relaxes her face and seems completely satisfied with her answer. Her mother's face softens and the hardened look of premature age melts away to show the youth she truly is. The streamers of rain down her face hide the new glistening lines of salted tears that have edged their way from the corners of her eyes.
"Well, Nicki, those blue rain boots are truly magic then. Because I could think of no greater kind of magic than the kind that can always bring you back to me."
The two grasp hands and turn to finish their walk home. Same as they did on everyday at four thirty. Except today, they both seemed to almost be, skipping.
I have a bad habit of dragging a camera around with me everywhere I go. These are all images of a fair I went to the end of this summer. I also am a novice developer so these images are intentionally rough like this. I like the old fashion look to them. This is all film created pictures scanned into the computer. I just don't like digital. I guess you can say I like to touch the film as I manipulate the image.
I hated this ride as a kid. We called it Monkey Cages, it was called something else at this fair.
The Ferris Wheel, I liked how haunted this one looked.
This one was called Arabian Nights. It was one of those rides made to look like a boat and moves like a giant pendulum.
This one was hard. A Merry Go Round is a fair staple but I was loosing the light. It was a matter of trying to trick the light. It didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, but still it was okay.