Rocket | H.S

thirteen

I'm never one to break my promises. 

So here I am, hand in hand with my gorgeous little girl, the one that I missed so incredibly much over the past day and a bit. She's been so patient with me today, I think it's all because she was just happy to be back with her mother again. I could still bring a stroller if I wanted to, but she's getting to the age where I think it's safe enough to leave it in the car.

So, she's held my hand this entire little Kmart trip. 

I grab the last box out of two that I grabbed in the basket I was carrying, they were five-meter silver string lights.     I came here today to purchase cushions and some lighting, but of course my main reason was to spend some time alone with the closest thing to my blood. 

"Alright." I huff a little, breaking the contact between my larger hand and hers, placing the light in the shopping basket. 

"Mummy's done!" I act excitedly for her, bending down to her head. "Let's go pick out three things for you, hey?" 

I promised if she was patient, didn't ask for this or that and kept her arms by her side we could pick out some small things for herself. It was her treat date after all, and she had been just exceptional the whole day. 

I don't know how she turned out so beautiful. She was a true blessing and any adult she's come across has said the same thing to me, through different words.

As a little three-year-old, in Kmart, I knew she'd pick out maybe a pencil with a fluffy ball on the top or something typical like that. She didn't even know it, but it was only really going to cost me ten dollars because she was so grateful. She literally knows not to pick out something ridiculous. 

She looks right into my eyes with glee, her smile brighter than any rainbow I've ever seen. I grab my girl's little hand as I stand up again, admiring my creation in my mind as she takes me on a little adventure, she seems to know exactly where we are going. 

Through the shoes and baby clothes section, we come out to an open area. She was headed right to the kid's toy section and I couldn't blame her. She seemed to have a certain thing on her mind, because she had tunnel vision, she knew exactly what turns to make. 

To her right was a shelf, full of little dividers on each bench of the shelf. They had little toys you could fit in your hands like slime, stress balls and all that stuff. She picked out a yellow slinky right away. She hands it to me; I could tell even she's been waiting for the green light.

I place it in the basket and hold her hand again, as we set on our adventure to find some more things shed like. I didn't expect the first thing to only be a dollar, but alright. 

Price didn't matter to me, or Harry. It just makes me happy she's this simple. No iPad, no desperation for screens. She was just a simple child. 

"Woah..." Her tiny high-pitched voice came through so excited. 

She let go of my hand and sprinted full ace away from me, to whatever had caught her eye in the small fragment of time where I was placing the slinky in the basket. 

I chase after her, it wasn't very hard to catch up. I wasn't really annoyed or frustrated that she had let go, she was a toddler who was excited. I'm still like that, so she gets it from her very own mother anyway. 

When she stops at the shelf, I hover behind her as she takes down a set of fake flowers. 

Sunflowers. 

She turns around, a doe-eyed little girl looking up at me with the most precious, most purest smile. She holds them up for me, like I have to take them before she explains herself.