I ask Liz on our walk home from school. “The buns smell like rose perfume.” My legs travel in the direction I talk. “No, and stop bumping into me. Stay on your side of the sidewalk.” I try, but after a few squares of concrete, I drift back into her lane, so she bumps me back. We thump bump all the way to Shady Lane. “Shady Lane is our own temple of beauty,” Liz says, looking up at the canopy of trees. “We have to take a rest. Stop here.” We spread out on the little hill that butts up to a green-shuttered house on the corner. Alongside the house is the darkest dirt I have ever seen and growing in it are yellow daffodils. A cement squirrel about to eat a cement nut stands guard over the flowers. I press my body into the ground as if I’m a mound grown by Mother Nature. “I’m growing, Liz. Look how long I am.” My feet nearly touch the sidewalk; my head is an arm’s length away from the flowers. “Watch out for bees,” she says, gazing toward the sky. Above our heads are three trees with leaves bunched up so tightly it looks like they are holding hands and praying.
What do You think about Paint Me A Monster (2014)?
