Sunday, May 1, 2011

Week 14 - Using yourself differently - 1st piece

Up and out of bed early like every morning…but today was Saturday, not a workday. Three people had to use the bathroom before seven forty-five, so like every other day she got up early to get ready to give the others time later. This was the day her grandchildren had been waiting for. The circus was in town.

“Let’s go,” she said to the four-year-old and her mom. They climbed into the car and buckled up.


Thirty minutes later there were four of them cruising down the highway. The eight-year-old grandson sat in the back eating his breakfast, while the four-year-old played with a doll she’d brought with her. She asked the kids what they wanted to see at the circus. Elephants and clowns were their answers. They’d probably be clowns there, but the elephants could be iffy. The last time she’d been to the circus was years ago, and there had been an elephant, but this year there had been no ads about elephants at the circus.


When they arrived, there certainly were clowns everywhere, and she watched with a smile as both grandkids got most of the clowns to sign their circus books. She was happy to see that there was no shyness or trepidation towards the clowns from both of them. Inside the auditorium they were immediately overwhelmed with salespeople selling cotton candy, snow cones, and souvenirs. Might as well get it done, so she bought each of them the light-up souvenir they wanted. With seats picked out, they sat and waited for the show to begin.


As each performer dazzled the crowd with their amazing acts, she spent her time watching the grandkids enjoying the show. She laughed with her grandson at the antics of the clowns, shared a look of wonder with him at how the lady could change costumes inside the curtain so fast, and watched her granddaughter clap along with the music as the dogs jumped the hurdles and the monkeys walked around in their leopard skin outfits. She was glad they were here. This is what grandmas should do with grandkids, she thought. This is why she had gotten up so early this morning.

1 comment:

  1. Classic vignette--you learned that lesson very well and execute perfectly here.

    ReplyDelete