We walked around the park for almost a hour. Possibly more. I stopped checking the time after a half hour when Vincent bought me a slushie and a balloon animal to fill my hands up. The balloon was in the shape of a giraffe. I told him balloon animals were for four year olds, but he only bought himself a dog shaped balloon only to accidentally pop it five minutes later. This only proved my point.
He showed me around the park I had been to a thousand times before, but the the parts he pointed out to me and the way he explained things, I saw this park in a whole new light. I don't know how he did it. I thought I knew every corner of this park, but Vincent showed me things I never thought of looking at twice. One thing was tree that had a pair of initials surrounded by a heart carved into it, but it was halfway up the trunk so no one could really ever see it. I had painted that tree at least five times at different angles and I had never noticed it. I would have to paint it again.
Finally, we found a bench to relax for a while. Our legs were tired and we both still had half a slushie to finish. From the first sip I could feel my tongue turning bright red from the cherry flavoring. Vincent's had turned a dark blue from his blue raspberry one. It made him look childish, but it was kind of cute.
"If you could go anywhere in the world, Ross, where would it be?" Vincent asked sitting on the bench next to me. He stretched out his legs and took a long sip of the slushie, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
"Paris." I said automatically. It's been one of my dreams to go to the Louvre. It was probably every artist's dream to go there, but I didn't care. I wanted to go there ever since I was a little girl.
"Lame." Vincent said, catching me off guard. How was Paris lame? "Everyone wants to go to Paris. Pick somewhere else."
I stared at him, confused. "You asked if I could go anywhere and Paris is where I could go. I want to see the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower."
"Still lame. Not to mention really predictable." Vincent said, tilting his head to look at me.
"Okay. Fine." I said, shaking my head and crossing my arms. This didn't change I still desperately wanted to see the Louvre. "Where would you want to go, Vincent? Anywhere lamer than Paris?"
"This morning, it was Granny's Waffle Hop." He said leaning back on the bench, looking forward and tucking his long legs under it. We couldn't have left the waffle place more than an hour or two. He thought for a moment. "Right now, I'm thinking that corndog stand we passed after we got our slushies."
"What?" I stared at him, bewildered. "That's it? Out of all the wonderful and strange and beautiful places in the world, it's a waffle place and a corndog stand that you want to go to? Vincent, how is Paris, the city of love and art lame, and Granny's Waffle Hop and a roach infested corndog stand not?"
"Random Happenings." Vincent grinned at me like he knew I would have no idea what he was talking about. He was right. I had no idea what he was talking about.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him. Might as well voice my question. I was curious more than anything. He looked to excited about about the topic.
"Random Happenings." He repeated then turned and faced me, slushie still in hand. He took a sip before he continued. "It's my life philosophy. Carpe Diem. Hakuna Matata. Random Happenings are just the random little things that happen during the day, good or bad. Good, we had waffles and slushies; bad, the train was late. Live life to the fullest and care about the tiny things in life as well as the big things."
"So living life to the fullest is going to a corndog stand instead of Paris." I deadpanned. I still couldn't grasp that a corndog stand trumped Paris.
"In a way." Vincent admitted, bringing one of his knees on the bench. His foot poked my leg and I shifted farther away. He didn't seem to notice. "You see, you want to go to Paris, and I guess it's not lame, but it's getting in the way of enjoying great waffles and some mediocre corndogs. You see?"
"No." I replied, still staring at him. His smile fell a little, but he picked it back up again.
"I have a challenge for you, Rosyln Hill." Vincent said, pointing at me. I glanced at his finger then back up at his face.
"What is it?" I asked, exasperated, but smiling a little at his contagious stupid grin.
He seemed to grin a little wider. "From here on out, you live your life like me. Embracing the Random Happenings. Enjoying the--"
"Tiny things in life." I humored him by finishing the sentence. He looked at me expectantly and I sighed. "As well as the big things."
"There you go!" Vincent exclaimed sounding like a proud parent and faced forwards again. "So. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?"
"Not the corndog stand, that's for sure." I said, glancing at him. He deflated a little and his wide grin faltered. I smiled again. "There's a great Mexican food truck on the corner. I would definitely rather go there."
Vincent's response was jumping up, grabbing me by the hand, and steering me towards the food truck circle, leaving our slushies and my balloon giraffe behind. We were off to enjoy the tiny things in life.
