A Bike Ride

On Thursday afternoon I had barely settled into the arm chair after a nice hot shower which was after an hour of soccer and a workout at Red Black gym earlier that morning when Vivian asked me to go outside with her. It was cold out there and I was tired and I almost said "No honey, stay indoors and watch a movie". A few minutes later we got warmly dressed and Vivian rode her bike to Rosedale School. Along the way she stopped to hug the old oak tree. Then we sat in the empty school park on the swings and chatted with each other for quite some time. I told Vivian how much I valued times like this. I think I embarrassed her into admitting the same.

Then Vivian said she wanted to go to the monkey bars which are on the other side of the school. After which we walked past the small vegetable gardens and she pointed out the vegetable plants and herbs by name. And then we were at the memorial garden. We walked by statuary with tiny plaques attesting to the short lives of many Rosedale students. Vivian asked me to read a few of them aloud. We finally arrived at the memorial wall. Vivian asked if I had known any of the dead students. I recognized several names, specially the two from this year. Vivian hugged me and softly slipped her hand into mine and we quietly walked back to her bike. A hundred yards down the street she was back to her normal self.