My Thoughts

Balloon

Her gaze was fixed on it. The red oval tied to the fragile string glistened in the sunlight as she walked down the street. She was locked onto it. As she walked, she watched it bob up and down along the path, but somehow glide smoothly at the same time. She analyzed it, it's features, its actions, as if this balloon somehow could act as if it were alive. She, enhancing her curiosity with the ballon, pulled on the string, over and over, until she was "eye to eye" with it. She placed her hand over the balloon, studying it. inside the crystal balloon, she saw the treasure it held inside.
one small, breakable memory.
her favorite memory.
the one from years ago, from her small town in Illinois, before she moved to the awful town she was in now. the memory looked as if it was the balloon, as if one small poke would shatter it, making it irreparable.
as one small tear escaped her eye, she stared as she saw her younger self run across her small yard with a brown leaf-sized dog runs at her heels.
one tiny gasp escapes her lips as she watches a forgotten past.
that's where she got the scar.
she watches as her dog, her favorite dog, attacks her arm. it foams at the mouth. she cries for so long until her parents come.
and as she stares at the balloon, she remembers. after that day, she never saw that dog again.
suddenly, it isn't her favorite memory anymore.
with a single tear falling to the ground, she pulls the bobby pin out from her perfectly fixed hair and stabs the red balloon. Once, twice, three times until it pops.
And then she moves on, as if it never happened.
she's done with that.