when I was very young. We traveled with Dad as he followed road construction and the money. Where he was needed we were. This meant different housing every month or so. Sometimes amazing houses or apartments, other times not so great.
I remember one house. I cannot tell the town nor the state but I cannot forget that house. It was a house where magic lived, where squirrels talked to you and little people swam in the bathtub.
The house was two-storied with an amazing upstairs balcony. I loved that place. I could go up and look down and it would seem like miles to the ground. I think I was about four years old maybe younger.
What I do remember is the way my mind wrapped itself around things and would not let go.
Having few toys didn't matter because Helen my first dog traveled with us. I remember playing with a small inflatable horse. On the balcony I decided to see if my horse could fly. It could not but it kinda floated on the wind like a leaf slowly to the ground. This sent my mind another direction. If it took that long to get to the ground, I could throw it over and run down to catch it. What a wonderful new game!!
After about my fourth trip running break neck speeds from the upper balcony and out the front door, my mother came to check.
When called by Mother, Helen and I both sat properly waiting to hear what Mother had to say. Helen and I thought we'd done something wrong...again.
Mother asked, "What are you two up to now? All I hear is running and slamming, running and slamming." Mother stood with her hands on her hips with her no nonsense expression. Helen and I both knew she wasn't handing out cookies.
I decided to speak up and explain what we were doing. We were tossing the horse off the balcony and if Helen and I ran really, really fast, we just knew we could catch that horse before it hit the ground. We just had to run faster. That's what we were doing. We just had to try harder, that's all.
Toward the end of my explanation Mother's hands left her hips. The mad left her eyes and there was a hint of a smile. She patted Helen on the head and straightened the bow on my dress. "Well," she said, "I admire your and Helen's faith and hard work. Go ahead, just try not to slam the door when you go out."
As Helen and I bounded up the stairway again with that poor inflatable horse I grinned at Helen and said, "See, I told you we weren't doing anything wrong!" Helen said nothing but wagged her tail all the way to the balcony.
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