Imperishable Beauty

Creative writing exercise ;)

Riotous colors spin in a circle, the pinks and purples blending in a girlish whirlwind. The wind catches Angelica's hair, and light blond strands stream backwards from her face as she feverishly pedals. My little baby sister - she of the big blue eyes and dimples, who cried whenever someone tried to put her down, who waved at every passing car and only knew that food was "hot" - is racing me, daring me to keep up.
My feet rythmically pound the pavement as I jog besides her. "C'mon, Jessica!" she says. Yesterday she told Mom that mohawks weren't "fashion." She signs her name in tipsy capitals all by herself, dotting the "i" with a little circle: A-N-G-E-L-i-C-A.
My breath comes in short gasps now. Despite my best efforts, she's pulling away. After all, she has the laws of physics and nature on her side; there's nothing I can do to slow down her progress, even for a moment.
Last night she refused to eat the one remaining piece of cake, so that she could share some with my brother. Monday she asked Mom why the neighbor boy can't speak clearly, and why the girl on TV was sad.
"Freeze!" she orders me, and I want to tell her that no, she should be the one freezing in place, but she's already pedaling away, balencing precariously on her training wheels, gravel spitting out from behind her like babyish habits to be left in the dust.
She pulls into our driveway first, white wheels crossing the black tar. "I winned!" she calls, happy until she sees my melodramatically crestfallen expression. "It's ok," she adds. "You winned too!"

posted by Jessica @ 1:54 PM |

Back home

Wow, two weeks without posting. Oops. Well finals are over and done with (as of May 7) and I came out fine, or at least that's what my psychiatrist tells me, I've already repressed those memories. No, actually, it wasn't all that bad. Packing up and moving out at the end of finals week was an unexpectedly crazy adventure, funny how everything fit so nicely into those boxes at the beginning of the year. :) Muchas gracias to my parents for coming to help me leave - I really appreciated it!
It was hard to leave school but it's great to be back at home too. I'm just grateful for all the wonderful people God has put in my life, because it means I'm happy at either place (of course, it also means I'm always missing somebody). And one of these days I'm going to learn to enjoy the whole process of transition and changes. Sure...
I'm subbing a little bit at the library, which has been nice because making money this summer would be good. I also have that internship through ND, (I think I've talked about it here before) which will probably be full-time working at a day camp in the cities during June and July. It's funny, this is the first summer I can remember that I really want to work a lot - not because I don't enjoy just being around home, but just for the satisfaction of it (and of course the money lol!). That's almost a little sad if I'm getting that "mature" that working a lot can be balanced within my idea of a perfect summer. Although, I still will have to save time for reading books in the backyard in the sunshine!

posted by Jessica @ 11:18 PM |