Child Friendships

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” 
~Franz Kafka

The little boy with the dark brown tussled hair skipped around the playground, the sound of laughter trailing behind his constantly moving six year old frame. The noon sun lit up the meadow in which he cartwheeled, tumbled and crawled. The world looked so big, so limitless to his innocent green  eyes. Birds chirped, golden leaves swooped to the ground, landing all about him as his rosy cheeks embraced the crisp breeze. The day couldn’t be more perfect. Small feet padded up the jungle gym stairs, His worn out Nike’s were encrusted with dried out mud and with each short step he left a trail behind on the brightly colored play set. The mission was simple in his head, get to the top of the play set and slide down the vibrant green sparkling slide. The sun hit its plastic surface in just a way that made it look magical to the young boy and the only thing he could think about was to get to the top. The journey was long, it required crawling up many large stairs and hobbling over a linked together rope bridge. Finally, he was just one turn away in the tunnel from that magnificent slide! Rounding the corner, the smile on his face dimmed quite quickly, his lips puckering into a pout as he discovered the worst possible thing in the way of his fun slide ride down the twisty tunnel… A GIRL. There she sat, her lanky legs covered by pink and yellow tights blocked the entrance to the slide. Upon seeing the boy her entire face seemed to beam and her big blue eyes blinked often as she started talking excitedly. “My names Jasmine, what’s yours? I come here all the time, wanna play together??” Almost instantly the boy forgot about his original mission, growing happy to have a new play mate to adventure with, especially this intriguing girl with freckle dotted cheeks. “I’m Jeremy! I’m six years old and tied my own shoes, bet you can’t do that!” “Can too, faster than you! And I’m 8 years old, so that means I get to go first down the slide!!” The two laughed and tumbled down the slide, one right after the other. The entire afternoon had just taken a turn for the even better, before they knew it the two children were whispering jokes and exchanged pinky promises as they sat cross legged in a shaded tunnel, their cold faces out of the wind. “I like you, you’re my new best friend, we’ll be like this forever!” Jasmine said with certainty, her optimistic thoughts seemed reality in her mind. “Yeah, don’t forget!” Jeremy replied with a huge smile covering his face as he looked at the girl in the bright blue coat. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting grassy stains on their knees as they crawled about the fallen leaves. As the once sunny field grew more shaded, time seemed to fly by, until finally Jeremy’s mother called him over to the bench she had been sitting at. It was time to go home she told him, and instructed that he go say goodbye to his new little friend in the blue coat who was watching from the sandbox. Sadly he trotted over to Jasmine, “I have to go home now,” he said as he scratched the back of his head and kicked a rock lying by his feet. “Can I come too? You just CAN’T leave yet, our outer space exploration isn’t over!!” Jasmine looked up at Jeremy, hopeful he’d be able to stay longer. “Nahh, I gotta go now, but remember… We’re best friends for good now, you pinky promised and everything.” “I know, forever and ever. bye!” tweeted Jasmine as she started digging in the sand again, but not before waving a green gloved hand goodbye to Jeremy. He turned around and skipped back to his mom, yelling, “Bye Jasmine, don’t forget!” over his shoulder one last time. The two never saw one another again, and soon forgot about the perfect afternoon they had shared together.