Six: Dancing Backwards
1. There are these few drops at the very top of a wave, just as it crests, that seem to want to leap straight into the sky, shining. I love those drops.
2. Yesterday we used our new rooftop space for the very first time. Outside, above everything, in the shade, surrounded by the rustle of coconut trees. Beautiful.
3. Leafy would like us all to know that crabs like to dance, and that they dance backwards. Also, that they scare him, but not really, because the small ones don't bite, but the big ones do, but a small one ate a part of his foot once.
And I would like you to know that although it is tiring to carry this great big boy down the beach just because he is afraid (but not afraid, not really) of the crabs that scuttle into their holes as we pass... I just love his soft face nuzzled into my neck.
4. The bread man waits for me now, honking his horn on his bicycle, instead of whizzing past like he used to. I run out and ask for das pao (ten rolls) and then I wave and say thank you, and he nods gravely and rides off until tomorrow afternoon, when he will wait for me again.
5. I kissed YaYa's cheeks and her forehead before she fell asleep, and she kissed me back, even after an evening of her high emotions, of crying, of being unreasonable, of wailing loudly and inconsolably about things that don't seem to make any sense. I kissed her and she kissed me back, and there was grace for both of us.
2. Yesterday we used our new rooftop space for the very first time. Outside, above everything, in the shade, surrounded by the rustle of coconut trees. Beautiful.
3. Leafy would like us all to know that crabs like to dance, and that they dance backwards. Also, that they scare him, but not really, because the small ones don't bite, but the big ones do, but a small one ate a part of his foot once.
And I would like you to know that although it is tiring to carry this great big boy down the beach just because he is afraid (but not afraid, not really) of the crabs that scuttle into their holes as we pass... I just love his soft face nuzzled into my neck.
4. The bread man waits for me now, honking his horn on his bicycle, instead of whizzing past like he used to. I run out and ask for das pao (ten rolls) and then I wave and say thank you, and he nods gravely and rides off until tomorrow afternoon, when he will wait for me again.
5. I kissed YaYa's cheeks and her forehead before she fell asleep, and she kissed me back, even after an evening of her high emotions, of crying, of being unreasonable, of wailing loudly and inconsolably about things that don't seem to make any sense. I kissed her and she kissed me back, and there was grace for both of us.