Innocence

Wisps of brown hair float aimlessly around her round, chubby face, the water making delightful patterns of light dance on the concrete below. She watches in fascination as a molten silver bubble bursts from her lips and wobbles to the surface. How did that happen?, she wonders, puffing out a little more of the oxygen in her lungs. Behold! Another bubble. She giggles and a smile of delighted surprise breaks across her face at the smaller stream of bubbles produced by the giggle. But her air is running out, so she pushes tiny feet against the bottom of the pool and emerges.

All the sounds of the above-water world fill her ears, and she frowns in displeasure. The man next door who always yells is mowing his lawn, and a dog is barking relentlessly somewhere behind her. She re-submerges her head, drifting between the concrete bottom and the mirror-like surface. She is a fish, a dolphin, a mermaid.

But the surface of the water shimmers with the heat off the grill, where Daddy is making hot dogs. Mommy sings her name, the sound becoming garbled through the water. And the chlorine is beginning to burn her big green eyes anyway. Her head breaks the surface. A steaming hot dog is already waiting for her on a flimsy paper plate and Mommy is singing along with Brooks and Dunn. She is lavished with loving smiles.

Laughs and shouts fly through the air as rain begins to fall and everyone rushes in. She traces her finger down the window, following a trickling raindrop on its slow path. Thunder rumbles through her body and seconds later, lightning flashes. She runs from the window, where Mommy sings a lullaby into her hair. Soon she is peacefully asleep, knowing that nothing can hurt her in Mommy's arms.

She wakes up on a couch, a baby nestled into her breast and the smell of grilling flowing through the open door. Her husband smiles and asks if she had a nice nap while she tenderly strokes the peach fuzz scattered across her baby's head. Dinner is hot dogs on paper plates and sweet potato baby food and sparkling baby eyes full of innocence.