Little

A Little Girl and her Mother walk side by side. Holding her mother's hand, the Little Girl hops along, avoiding the lines on the cobblestone path. The light shines through the green trees from the park that they are. The Mother walks on calmly, looking down at her child from time to time and absently smiling, noticing the innocence and joy in which the Little Girl looked around and played along.

Mother and Daughter arrive at the center of the park. A fountain spilled water ahead and people bustled around, carrying ice cream carts, strollers, parents screaming for their wild children to not wander too far, old couples throwing bread at the ground for the birds, and lovesick teenagers kissing and holding hands. The place was the definition of "bursting of life", and the Little Girl ached to go play with the other children, to see the birds from up close and eat ice cream. But before she could break away from her mother's grasp, she was pulled towards an unoccupied bench.

The bench was of an old wood, colored a deep blue-sea and peeling at some places to see the colour red underneath. The Mother sat and gestured for her child to do the same. Confused, the Little Girl asked- "I can't go play today?"- and her mom pat the bench again and answered.

"Hop Hop Little Bunny, mommy wants to talk to you."

And hop she did, for she sat on the wood and held her little shirt in her little hands. Twisting, twisting as she anxiously waited for her mother to adjust her long floral dress and cross her fingers on her knee. The wood scratched and poked her little bare legs, and she was small enough to not be able to touch the ground with her little feet.

As she watched, the Little Girl noticed how beautiful her mother looked, smooth skin, cheeks flushed by the heat, hardened eyes by years of living in the city, silky hair that shined with the light, fingers thin and strong for playing an instrument. Her nails were polished, cut short to be easy to deal but long enough to paint a grand design. But most of all, as she looked on, she noticed how her mother's lips were tucked and formed a thin line, how her muscles seemed tense, and her eyebrows drew together. Then her mother pointed to what she was looking.

"See that woman over there? With the red shirt and with a smile on her face? What do you think it's happening over there?"

The woman in matter was quite far away and the Little Girl scrunched up her face trying to see better. The woman was young, she had a big camera on her chest, and seemed to be talking to a man in front of her. She continually twitched her fingers on her camera and with her other hand, brushed away strands of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear, never breaking eye contact with her partner.

The Little Girl, oblivious to all those little details answered- "She has chocolate skin just like my eyes!"- and for a second, the mother chuckled, but her face became grave again as fast as a bird flapping its wings.

"Yes, she does, Bunny. But do you notice the way she holds her camera? How she looks at the man in front of her? Do you notice the ticks and the pace in which she moves from one foot to another? Do you know what it all means?"

"No mommy."

"I want you to look very closely."

And so, the Little Girl did. She jumped off the bench and made her way towards the pair and started to notice all the things she had missed before. But as she got closer, she detected how the woman's smile seemed forced, how she did not move her head, but her eyes darted around. How she flickered her camera's buttons brusquely and her hands trembled. At each movement from her feet, she seemed to be separating herself from the man in front of her.

The Little Girl looked away right as the woman's gaze fell on her, a strange sensation of despair behind her eyes, and turned back to only find her mother right behind her with a hand on her shoulder. A second later, Mother left Daughter and confidently approached the pair with a bright smile on her face and open arms as she hugged the trembling and surprised woman.

"There you are! We've been looking all around for you! Come come, everybody is waiting for us just right ahead."

And with no other word, the three of them left.

The Little Girl looked only once behind, and she noticed the man looking straight at her, and then he smiled. She didn't understand why, but she felt a chill, a drop on her stomach that made her turn away fast and pick up her pace to get as far away and as quickly as possible from the strange man. When they finally left his vision range, the woman crumpled. She held Mother's arms and thanked her profusely, tears staining her skin and trying to explain what happened. But the Girl heard none of it. She could only look at the trees and remember of the man's smile. How his white teeth gleamed and how wolfish he seemed.

She didn't notice anything until her mother again touched her shoulder. They were alone again.

"Should we go home Little Bunny?"

And her child nodded, only she wasn't "little" anymore.

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Author's note:

I don't know what exactly to think of this piece. Only that it started out with a mother trying to teach her daughter a lesson about society, and ended somewhat abruptly. But I believe that it clearly symbolizes how the Little Girl's reality was shattered: abruptly, brusquely, and violently.

I hope you liked reading this as much as I liked writing it.

Keep dreaming,

Kiki.