Small Sweets - Lori Hale Williams
It was so hot she could feel her skirt sticking to the back of her knees. Sweat ran down her legs, making her flip flops wet and slippery. She mindlessly scratched a bug bite on her arm while staring at the sign. Vanilla or chocolate? She settled on vanilla, and paid the lady her last two dollars.
She licked at the cone and the stickiness on her lips reminded her of Sawyer. He was standing about 15 feet away, but even though he was talking to Sue she could feel his gaze on her. He had only spoken to her one time, that day at the creek when he had cannonballed off the Hwy 69 bridge. They were looking for minnows in the shallow muddy water under the bridge when Sawyer asked if she was going to the fair in May. As she formed the words "yeah I think" he leaned over and kissed her gently but quickly. She had stared at the back of his head for the last three weeks of English class after that; he only looked at her when he thought she wasn't looking. She looked down, and realized that vanilla ice cream was dripping down her hands. She quickly wiped the mess on her skirt, embarrassed even though Sawyer had turned away and couldn't see her anymore. She thought about going after him, grabbing him around the waist and kissing him like she had imagined they did in her mom's romance paperbacks. Instead she found her last three tickets and stood in line for the ferris wheel.
The ride started and she immediately regretted the ice cream that churned in her belly in rhythm with the lurching wheel. She stretched her legs and felt a pang of loneliness. But at the top of the wheel's arc, the breeze cooled her face. She looked out at the fair and was relieved to be above it all. Next year she would be in 8th grade, and things would be different. She spotted Sawyer, standing still in the center of the grounds, looking up. Was he looking for her? She waved, and then realized that there was no way he would ever see her. She was so small. Her sticky hands fell to her lap and the wheel began its trip back down to the ground.
Photo copyright getthebubbles. View it on Flickr.
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