"Bye, Mommy! Hallo, Uncle Tiger!"
April ran towards me, and I scooped her up in my arms, holding her up.
"Ah, gee, you're getting so big!" I told her.
"April! Get back here! You haven't even put on your shoes!" May cried out from the front door, bending down to pick up a set of tiny, strap on, black shoes, little butterfly decorations at the side.
I looked at the four-year-old's feet, and she was still in her white, lacy socks. Her brown, silky pigtails brushed against my face as I sighed. June rolled down the window of the car.
"Hey, Apricot! You ready for school?"
"Yeah!" she shouted.
May looked like she'd just gotten out of bed, tired, so I sat April on the roof of the car and sprinted to her, taking the little shoes off her.
"We'll put them on in the car." I said, laughing a little.
"Thank you for all this. It's just, Jo woke up late today because he was working himself out last night, and then I only just realised April had school, oh it's so good you haven't gone to work yet."
I shrugged.
"Late morning shift at the hospital. If Jovan wants a ride right now..."
"He's still having breakfast, it's fine."
I grinned and saluted, the pair of tiny school shoes in my hands.
"Alright, I'm going now."
"Drive safe! Oh, wait! Her lunch! Jovan!"
The brown haired man dashed out with a pink lunchbox, giving it to me.
"Please put this in her backpack. Oh man, I'm so sorry for all this trouble."
Usually, Jovan would drive April to school on his way to work, but today things had gone awry.
"It's no problem, always happy to help."
He groaned when he took notice of the shoes I had.
"She always forgets her shoes..."
I chuckled.
"Bye bye, Daddy!" April screeched from the top of my car in the driveway, both hands waving crazily in the air.
"Bye honey!" Jovan shouted back, giving her an air kiss, and I made my way back to her. "Remember if any of the kids hit you, break their noses!"
"And their skulls!" she yelled.
"That's my girl!"
"Jovan!" May scolded.
"Stop wiggling your toes..." I huffed at April, as I strapped the first one up.
"Hehe!"
Her mother's blue eyes looked back at me with the hint of the devil.
"God..."
June stuck out her tongue.
"This is all practice for the future, Tyler!" she teased.
"Oh, be quiet."
I stuffed the lunchbox in her princess schoolbag and then I strapped her into the car.
"We don't have a car seat..." June trailed off.
"It's a short ride, we'll let it slide."
We waved out the window, and were off. I adjusted the jacket of my suit and tried to fix my tie as I drove, which got messed up.
"You look fine, darling." June told me. April started singing 'Humpty Dumpty' from the backseat, and she joined in.
"... Humpty dumpty had a great fall! All the king's horses and all the king's men-!"
"Always put Humpty together again!" April finished
"Oh." June said through a smile. "Well, isn't that a happier ending?"
"Auntie Juju, when's Auntie Karma coming back?"
Karma had decided to finish her education in college, and become a writer thereafter.
"Oh, she'll come for a visit next week, probably." June replied.
"Yay! I love Auntie Karma because when she plays mopoly with Daddy and Mommy and me she always cheats with me and gives me alllllll the money!" she snickered.
I laughed at that one. I imagined the four of them at the table, Jovan smashing the Monopoly board when Karma asks him for rent he doesn't even owe her.
"Does she now?"
"Yeah! She told me that she was the best mopoly player in the world!
We pulled up to her school, where kids her age and older were skipping along or on scooters, filing into the yard. June and I got out to escort her to the gates.
She held both our hands as we swung her between us.
"Whee!" she giggled. "Higher, higher!"
And then eventually, she let go of our hands, clutching the straps of her schoolbag.
"Okay, bye Auntie Juju, bye bye Uncle Tiger!"
She sprinted on her small legs to go join her friends. June's face softened.
"Aww, she has her own little gang already." she cooed.
I took this opportunity to pull her close by the shoulders.
"Yeah? She's a bright little girl. She has her whole future out in front of her."
"Exactly. Come on now. Jovan and I made a bet whoever makes it to the firm first this morning has to buy the other lunch in the afternoon, and I'm not losing."
"It looks like you're in the lead, don't worry."
I kissed her nose and guided her towards the car. A smirk appearing on my face, I tapped her arm and bolted forwards, past the parents and schoolchildren who gave me odd stares.
"Last one to the car is a potato-infested worm! Or was it a worm-infested potato?"
I didn't have time to think before June ran after me.
"This- this isn't fair! I'm wearing-!"
"Screw the stupid heels!" I laughed out, dodging my way around the people on the road.
"Ugh, you!"
I had gotten a head start on her. June eventually caught up with me, and I wrapped my arm around my newly-wedded wife's waist and pulled her closer as we continued racing, not slowing down. I sank my face into her hair, nuzzling into her.
The world was full of ups, and downs, roads south and roads north. It had so many wondrous people, some you hold so close to your heart that they become family. You lose, you win, you cry, fall, laugh, scream, shout. You never stop, so long as the world keeps spinning. Because nobody else will go for you. The world was full of things to keep us going.
And the rest? Magic.
YOU ARE READING
North
Ficción General"Iriehen was a dreamer's city. It wasn't a city for the faint of heart, not for someone like me, who was just waiting for the next big thing. It was a city for the people who were in the next big thing." ... When June Winters, a young attorney aspir...
