Pursuing Pandora

Chapter 16

Sunday mornings are so refreshing, they let you get some extra sleep, lounge around and catch up on your favorite shows or just read a book till night falls. This was my routine before my perky 10 year old came in my life. Sunday mornings are now about exercise, jogging, eating healthy food and going over beauty routines.

Zara just has too much energy. Even when I have enrolled her for a zillion classes she is always enthusiastic to join more. She is charged all day. I wish there were batteries that I could take out once in a while. She even goes to swimming class, dance class, cooking class, karate class, then there are also German and kick boxing lessons with me. She is not musically inclined so she dropped the piano lessons after a week. Every time I feel "this is too much for a kid", she starts a DIY project. I am waiting for Zara to hit puberty. Hopefully then she will learn to slack off a little and I will stop feeling like a weary old grandma.

We arrived at Central Park for the Sunday morning jog. In these few months I have seen Zara's physical and mental change as she relished her freedom. She was frail like a little bird breaking out of its shell when I got her home. Training her reminds me how difficult it was training Marron. That girl used to run like a fawn learning to walk.

"Dora, do you like baseball?" Zara stared at the father and son playing catch when she asked the question.

"Well I haven't played it but we could give it a try. We'll borrow Beauford's bat."

She slowed down and wrinkled her nose. "No. I don't want to."

"Z, is something wrong?"

She looked at me to speculate if she really wanted to speak her mind or just give me something stupid. "I don't think Beauford likes me a lot."

What?! Didn't she just come from a sleepover at his house? Beauford is the only friend she has of her own age! This has to work! "Umm what... what made you think that?"

She avoided eye contact as she said, "He keeps taking my toys and breaks them. He also tells Uncle Oz that I broke them. He never listens to me. He annoys me soooooo much!"

I am trying really hard to hold back a smile. She is complaining about having 'a' brother! I had five, FIVE! "Bunny, siblings fight all the time. Their annoying antics are their misunderstood ways of having fun."

"You don't fight with Uncle Oz or Uncle Reese." Austin had become Uncle Oz after he floored my daughter with magic tricks. The girl is a powerful savant and is still surprised by magic?

"We are older now. When we were kids, your Uncles used to prank me till I cried. Then those nuts would feel bad and bribe me with chocolates to stop crying. They are the reason I'm a chocoholic," also the reason why I stress eat chocolate. "Once you grow up you will miss everything that annoyed you about him. So... Don't worry, Beauford doesn't hate you." No one could ever hate you.

She mulled over my explanation for a while and came to an agreement with herself.

After a while I head a familiar rhythm of uneven footsteps coming our way. "Could you.... Just stop... running?" she held a hand on her heart and begged. "Please?"