Winter Season

A circus that will never leave town

A horn blew repeatedly. “Great,” he hissed.

Esther stood inside the door and watched as he approached the truck. It was his brother. He stood there for about five minutes or so. Oscar didn’t say much. But his brother sure was. And with the amount of hand gesturing that was going on, she figured it wasn’t anything pleasant. Finally, Oat backed out of the driveway, slid across the road and sped away in the direction of their house. Oscar turned and looked at his door for a minute, then turned heading back toward Esther.

She held the door for him, “are you okay?”

He took a deep breath releasing his anger; one look at her reminded him just how sexy she looked right now. “You are so beautiful.”

She smiled and blushed.

“Would you like to go to town with me?”

“Sure, let me get dressed. What are you after?”

“Nothing really.” He closed his eyes, stretching out on the couch.

She leaned over the top, “if you’re not after anything, then why go?”

He reached up and caressed her face. She felt so good. So soft. “We could just stay here, lie on the couch and kiss each other all day.”  

“Do you want to know the bad part about being kissed by you?”

He smiled a great big smile finishing her thought, “I want to hop on the good foot and do bad things.”

“You stole that line.” She smiled.

“Yeah, but you got it.”

“Oh, I got it.”

“Let’s lay on the couch and watch movies, eat junk food and just be with each other.” He was kneeling on the couch by this point facing her.

“Sounds like an amazing plan.”

She turned to walk away.

He called after her, “Esther.”

“Yes.”

“Happy Birthday.”

She blushed disappearing into the house. When she came back she had a small book, it was very old. There was no writing on the cover.

“What is this?” He asked. When he opened it, a pressed dandelion lion lay on a page.

“I know you remember not being able to swim.”

“Of course, I almost drown. You pulled me out of the water.”

“As we walked back to the house, you stopped and picked this flower for me and gave me a kiss.”

He whispered, “I don’t remember.”

“I guess you were too torn up from almost drowning. But you did.” Oscar thumbed through the book. The title page read All Summer in a Day and other short stories Owner: Oscar Patterson “You gave me the book too. You were afraid I get bored on the ride home.”

“I kissed you then too.” He thought for a moment. “Your grandmother and my aunt caught me.”

“They did.” She smiled. “Chet told me how much you talked about that summer once he got back from his family vacation. He said you had way more fun than he did.” She shrugged, “despite the fact that you almost drown.”

“I can’t believe I forgot.” He got up walking over to the window holding the book. “Karen told me not to tell anyone that I had kissed you. She told me that my dad would be upset and that my mom would come unglued. It must have scared the life out of me and I buried it.” He went back to her, caressing her face. She closed her eyes to absorb his touch. He placed a soft kiss on her lips.

Winter Season