Forever And A Day

Four : The Past

I bend down to pick a bright yellow flower , my braids falling over my shoulders  .

It was Sunday noon and I was dressed in a white and pink dress with white shoes and pink knee high shoes .

I've been to church that morning with my Mom and Dad . Owen had stayed home watching movies on the Telly . I never got to stay home like him . I was very jealous of that .

After Sunday lunch I'd escaped the confines of the house to come to the fields behind my house .

I was alone because Max didn't want to come . He was a teenager now . Thirteen years old . And I ?. I was just a ten year old preteen who still loved playing with dolls .

I wondered sometimes if becoming a teenager was such a grand idea . Look at how Max and Owen had changed . They acted all disgusted when Lyssa, Jessie and I asked them to come play with us .

Was it so bad being a preteen ?.

I suppose in their books it is.

Next weekend Max would be leaving for America again to visit his Aunt Mercia and work on a short  TVseries  where he had been offered the lead . His Aunt Mercia is his agent and responsible for each movie, series and commercial he ever played in .

He wouldn't be back for four months . I didn't like that . He was still my best friend even if he was acting like a jerk sometimes.

Last year a film crew had come to make a small documentary about him and I was on it . I was introduced as his sisters' friend.  Not his . It had hurt to be treated like that ,but I'd endured .

Here I was picking flowers under the warm summer South African sky while he sat at his home doing nothing but watch cartoons . What's wrong with that picture?.

He was famous while I was just the little girl next door . I guess he didn't want to associate with me now that he was making big bucks .

I bend down again to pick another flower . This one was pink with yellow streaks . I loved flowers . Roses were my favourite and Magnolias . They both smelled so good .

I had shampoo that smelled like roses .

I added the flower to the basket that I'd brought with me . It was almost too full with all kinds of wild flowers .

I was going to make bundles and give them to Mom and Aunty Emma . They really liked when I brought them flowers .

Aunty Emma wasn't feeling all too well since she'd had an operation a week ago . Maybe my flowers would cheer her up .

I picked another yellow flower before I thought of heading back home .

I watched a few butterflies dancing around some flowers as I passed them .

A breeze smelling like the ocean caressed my face and made me dress fill up like a balloon around my legs and hips . It felt like it was going to lift me up into the sky and fly me over to the end of the world .

I giggled at that thought . If only I could fly . I'd be famous like Peter Pan and Superman.

I reached the street at the back of our yard ,heading right towards Max's house . I would give Aunty Emma her flowers first then head home and hand over Mom's .

Lyssa was sitting outside on a patio chair , drawing pictures when I walked through the back gate .

She'd been there earlier too . She was nine now and bigger than most girls in her Grade . Aunty Emma had tried putting her on a diet ,but she didn't want to leave the sweets alone .