Sweet Lantern

Chapter 15

Darry

Somewhere we've never been? Well, that's not too difficult, I guess... seeing as we rarely leave this town. Where should we go then? I have the perfect place! I look over at her and smile, she's being my sweet, innocent girl, letting the wind lift and push her arm, as she hangs it out the window of my car. The breeze is blowing her hair all around her face, but I can still see the beautiful smile and wide-eyed amusement on her face.

The coral colored shirt that I picked out for her this morning compliments her skin tone really well. She's gotten quite a nice tan this summer already, and the sun is adding little blond streaks in her brown hair and there are new freckles across her nose too. I can't help but admire her beauty. God surely took extra special care in making her. I can't believe she's all mine. Thank you, God for this woman. I don't deserve her, but you gave her to me anyway.

She leans over to turn on the radio and some catchy country song comes on. She starts singing along and her voice makes my heart melt. She has the voice of an angel, even though she swears she can't sing, she certainly can. She's giving the girl on the radio a run for her money and she's just being silly right now; she's not even really putting her heart into, I can tell. She catches me looking over at her and sticks her tongue out at me. Then she reaches over and tussles her fingers through my already messy hair. She sits back and puts her feet out the window, making me very nervous. But she doesn't seem to have a care in the world right now. I love it when she's relaxed like this. I like being able to carry her off into a place that she can let all the worries of the world melt off her and just be herself. It's great.

I pull into the Walmart parking lot and tell her, "Ok, we're here. Ready to go have some fun?" She looks at me and I can see she's not amused. I laugh and say, "I need to grab a few things first, OK?" She agrees and we go into the store.

When we turn onto the highway, she turns to look at me with confusion in her eyes. "Where are we going exactly?" she asks, wondering if I'm taking her on some long road trip that's going to get us both in serious trouble with our parents, I assume.

"We're not going too far. We'll be home by this evening. Is that OK?" I ask, hoping she doesn't ask me to turn around. I know she's only confused because I don't normally drive the highway, but I want to be sure she's OK with this.

"Oh yeah, OK. I'm good. Just curious."

She continues to sing along with every song that comes on the radio. I continue to look at her from time to time to see her smiling and dancing in her seat. She's so cute, I love to watch her. She's also distracting so I have to keep forcing myself to turn my eyes back to the road and not concentrate so much on her.

When I pull off onto the exit, she sits up and looks at me and back at the "Welcome to" sign on the side of the road, "Uh uh! Really? Darry?! Seriously??" she asks, so excited I think she's going to jump out of her seat. "The Falls?? I've always wanted to come here!"

I love her excitement. It renews my own energy and makes me feel excited about bringing her here.

I get our pass and park the car. I open her door for her and walk to the back of the car, opening the back-passenger door, I grab the towels in the trunk and my new swim trunks. I grab her bathing suit and hand it to her. "Ready?" She nods, looking like a little girl ready to go meet Santa. I can't help but grin at her.

We find the path down to the lake and walk down. I'm praying the whole way that we'll be alone, since we both need to change clothes and I really just want to be alone with her for a while. When we make it to the lake, I look around and see that no one's there. Thank you, God! I pray.

The lake is magnificent. Straight ahead of us, across the lake, is a huge cliff with a waterfall running down it into the lake we're now standing beside. We both pull in a breath and try to take in all of the overwhelming natural beauty in front of us, admiring God's fantastic creation.