I woke up at 2:00am. The evening before, I opened the window and curtains and lay on my bed, struggling to focus all of my attention on homework. I never have trouble doing well on school, but I make it a habit to give my all, and the fairytales tugging at my mind made that difficult. They pulled me to the scene outside the window. Leaves fell off swaying branches and neighborhood children ran around their yards, throwing armfuls of leaves at their friends. I finally closed the textbooks, grabbed my cup of tea, and pulled up a chair to sit in front of the window. I need these times. No book, no journal, no camera, just me and life. A plane flew straight into the horizon, close under the heavy sheet of clouds that stretched over Birmingham. Christopher Columbus came to mind as I watched the plane fly lower with every mile it gained. Finally, it flew out from under the cover of the clouds and shone like a star with the sunlight reflecting off its wings. The sight took my breath away.
David, a little blonde boy who lives across the street, chased his golden retriever. “Sarks!” He laughed and yelled in bursts, trying to stuff leaves under his puppy’s collar.
When I woke up, the wall to my left was covered with the shadows of bare branches, swimming in the orange light that flowed into my room from streetlights outside. I got up to close the curtains and then jumped back into bed and wrapped myself in the covers. My cell phone buzzed on the nightstand. I reached over and grabbed it. A text from Liffy.
I took a nap after work today, got dressed and left to pick up Alice.
We watched Where the Wild Things Are.
“That kid reminded me of my brother” Alice laughed. I’d taken her to my favorite coffee house, o kafes! I was listening to the girl on stage, who’s voice rang high and pure and felt like cold bubbles running down my spine. Alice kept talking.
“He keeps a blanket in the car, and the other day when I was taking him to the dentist’s, he tried to take it in with him. He was looking over at a group of black poeple, standing beside their car. I told him to leave it in the car, but he said he couldn’t because the ‘black people’ might steal it. The funny part is that he’s black; we adopted him from Africa.”
I smiled. Alice always has a story to tell.
