~The Bittersweet Balloon~
There was a little girl and she walked along. She let the grass tickle her toes while she walked. She liked walking in the grass because there were flowers. There were little yellow dandelion flowers in the grass. The little girl's Nana had braided her hair. Her braid was tied with a big pink bow. The little girl had freckles on her nose. Her Mommy called her freckles "fairy kisses". The little girl held happily the string of a pink balloon. Most of the string streamed behind her in the breeze.
~time passed~
A girl walked along with her shoes on so the parched grass wouldn't scratch her feet. She picked a dandelion, now topped with a pale sphere of seeds and made a wish by blowing the cloud away to plant more weeds -someone told her that her favorite flowers were really weeds- amongst the dust. Her braides loosened and the bow she had finally grown into drooped with the weight of blissful ignorance stolen. She realized her "fairy kisses" were caused by the scorching summer sun burning the specks onto her skin. The whirling gusts of wind tried tearing her faded balloon from her hand but she managed to clutch desperately to the tip of the string.
~time passed~
She walked along the blank canvas of naked soil while the now lifeless flora melted back down to it's source, waiting to nurture the new wildflowers -dandelions- when the light of spring sun warms the earth. Her long wavy hair flapped freely in the wind while the growing light of the sun illuminated her face bearing new kisses from the fairies of light. The wind that once seemed to want to steal her baloon now wisely whispered "The time has come, let go...," and her fingers loosened, undoing a stifling wish to forever hold a tattered string.
~time stopped itself for her~
She watched with a bittersweet smile across her face as her balloon rose up gracefully to the heavens while dawn's light illuminated her world and the stars twinkled with fond farewells.
