When I was Five Part II

Shortly after arriving in my bedroom, I again found myself wandering the abyssof the cold dark dark night outside my window. It was not as light back here because there were no street lights glowing in the back yard. There were no bright orb's shining at all to turn the falling snow into sparkling diamonds as they careened to the earth. Three hours passed and there was only the snow to watch. The yard had began to take on an omnious aura, but I stay and stared...and thought...and pondered the empty of lonliness.

I did not want to witness another leafless skeletal tree cold and alone. I did not like seeing lone shivering cats scurring across cold landscapes in search of warmth. I guess in many ways I did not mind the cold dark and empty of the backyard poorly light ansd limiting my ability to see what I knew was out there. I hoped the kitten, not knowing there is no place like home, had found one somewhere in the distance. I would dream of the kitten and make it a good one full of love in a warm and comfortable place where he would purr with the affectioon and warmth of it all now surrounding him.

A silvery-gray chain link fence surrounded the backyard. There was a teather ball pole in the center of the yard that I played with once. In the yard standing alone with the other toys and such of my youth made the yard seem sparse in comparison to the crowd of entertainment brought there by summer. The teather ball had it's own story of nature and experience as I remembered with nostalgia when we had placed it in the yard. It took hours to accomplish and I seriously thought it would never be done in time for play before dark.

I socked it a good one when the okay was finally given and the ball swung back to quickly do the same to me. The mouse under my eye was a seemingly permanent feature upon my face for months into the new school year and I did not like the teather ball much anymore. A cold steak would help with discoloration most of the adults had said, however this did not work. My mom said it was just an old wives tale and she should know. Dreadful as it was I walked around like a living rainbow which my classmates thought was rather funny. When asked if they would like one of their own they didn't think it was so funny anymore. I was not a very good sport when I was five.

As I gazed out of that cold window at the teather ball, which was probably frozen hard as a rock, I just had to smile. Mother nature was taking care of the ball and its meanest for me tonight. That will teach you, I thought in consternation. An even happier thought crossed my mind as I realized that next summer mother nature will have taken care of me again. I will be bigger then and sock that ball good I will when warm days return to me again. I will smile big and proud when I am six.

The pleasure of the thought quickly vanished as visions of warm days and sunshine came back to mind. I loved summer and the sun. How it woke me in the morning. Going swimming. Picnic's on the weekends. Swimming. Going to the drive-in movies and sitting on the hood of the car. Swimming. Watching the fireworks on the fourth and grilling outdoors on the barbeque. Swimming.

There were a lot of things to do besides swimming though. No more school the biggest plus of all. I was not a nap taker in my youth so this activity seemed a bit ridiculous to me when I was five. This passed summer free of the new bonds of going to school I ran and played in the warm sunshine. The tree's were so green and the grass soft and cool. I liked how the grass smelled after being mowed.

There were flowers for mommy too but I got into trouble for that once. There were some things about summer I did not like too just like things in the winter time. A bumble bee stung me once as I tried to be friends so I did not like them much. Stickers were on the pretty red flowers too and they stung so I did not like them much either.

Mom said the flowers were just as mean as I was so I guess they were only five. The birds would sing so loud that everybody, except me, would complain of them being awoken by them in the morning. I never minded a bit and loved to watch them fly and play in the morning so cheerfully as they ate berries from the raspberry bushes and froliced in the morning sun singing. The way a bird can fly always amazed me the most about the creatures. I could not pat the top of my head and rub my belly at the same time yet the birds could do all those acrobatics with the ease that I walked or ran at the playground. I loved the birds most of all. What I did not understand about them though was how they could have any relationship with the bees other than eating them. This puzzled me greatly but perhaps I would understand this better when I was fifteen.