Excerpt from current short version of The Blessing: [ Lily was dressing Hannah properly for the weather while I had spread salt along the driveway and front porch. Between myself and Lily, I had always been the sneaky one. Before the girls were outside, I had set up a snow fort with chunks of ice on one side of our driveway. I was hiding behind the wall of ice, slouching into the crook of the snowbank I now called my fort, a deviously playful smile scowled across my face. When the girls were finally outside, Hannah saw me first, but before Lily could turn, one of my finely-packed snow balls hit her chest like a missile. “That’s not fair, daddy,” I remembered Hannah’s sweet, angelic voice calling out. The memory was clear as day. “You didn’t give me and mommy a chance to build our castle!” “Yeah, daddy, that wasn’t very nice,” Lily repeated, strolling up to me with a twist in her lips, some scheme I couldn’t read written within them. Hannah was already on the other side of the driveway building her castle. “I’ll get you back, Alex.” After kissing me, she walked back to help Hannah. Even in her snowsuit, I could see her body swaying as if trying to tease me. It was working. Always did. In the meantime, I worked on my fort until both girls silently snuck across the melting ice and barraged me with what seemed like endless amounts of the cold stuff. Afterwards, I was freezing and vowed to never find myself distracted again. Later, the three of us would warm up by the wood-burning fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa and a movie. Hannah had chosen the classic, old Pixar movie, UP, a movie I’d had in my collection since my twenties. Lily and I both loved the movie as much as she did, despite its sad beginning that set the mood for the film. I’m not entirely sure Hannah understood its meaning at the time, but she smiled and laughed with us nonetheless and asked if I would tie balloons to our house so we could go on an adventure together. I explained to her once that the movie was fiction and that our house really wouldn’t travel if we tied balloons to it. “I know, daddy,” she said with a smile. “But we could pretend.” And we did on numerous, joyful occasions. I would drive Hannah up to the dollar store and let her pick out dozens of cheap, latex balloons. Then, upon returning home, I’d climb the ladder and rig them around our chimney. We’d run around the living room, acting as if the house were floating through the clouds, keeping us off balance. We’d sit on the porch and pretend we were hovering over numerous exotic locales. We’d spot wild animals, see volcanos and oceans and gorges, or fly through the turbulence of a thunderstorm. Afterwards, we’d lay on the couch or on Hannah’s bed while I read her a story or showed her pictures from a National Geographic magazine of the places we’d went on our adventure. She’d fall asleep in my arms, and I’d thank God for the blessing that was my little angel. ]
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 19:36:38 +0000
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