bus stop buddy

Walking home from town the other day I ran across two little girls playing by themselves on a bench at a bus stop. Something compelled me to stop and talk with them. One of the girls, Jennifer (she pronounces it YENeefer) was five years old. She was precocious, friendly…in that nosey yet innocent way of asking a zillion questions (Where are you going? Why? Where do you live? How far? How old are you? How many brothers do you have? and on and on and on…). She had a high pitched squeaky voice. Below the hem of her jean skort, were two dirty, knobby knees. Her friend whose name I can’t remember was four years old. She was striking not so much for her light skin, but for her short, caramel-colored curly hair and wide set brownish-hazel eyes. It turns out Jennifer’s mom works at a local restaurant. Her sidekick’s parental unit works at the car seat re-upholstery place next to it. Evidently, the sidewalk and bus stop in front of the businesses was their self-managed daycare center. I played with them for a while, but, having grand plans of going for a jog, I said goodbye and started to walk on down the sidewalk... Or tried to, anyhow. The girls had other plans. They each grabbed one of my arms, dug in their heels with all their strength (which was significant considering their size) pulled me back towards the bus stop. They begged and pleaded for me not to go. After several unsuccessful attempts at detaching them from my arms and legs, I walked (with them still attached) back toward the restaurant where Jennifer’s mom was working, hoping for maternal intervention. No such luck. The owner of the local laundry mat who was chatting up the young mother, urged me to just take them with me. I jokingly asked them if they wanted to go with me to the U.S. (usually kids here are terrified of this suggestion) but these two readily agreed.

“But you don’t have your suitcases packed,” I said.

“We don’t need suitcases,” they replied.

“Well, you’ll at least need a coat, because it gets really, really cold in my country during the winter. We have snow there, you know,” I say to them teasingly.

All the sudden the little one detaches and takes off running down the sidewalk the other way. Jennifer was hot on her heels. Did the thought of snow scared them? This was my chance to make a break for it. But... I hesitated just a moment too long and both girls came racing out of some storefront towards me again. Each of them had a little sweater in their hand… ready to go with me...