Meadow

I DON'T WORRY, WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

“Oh!” Delight in her voice. “I like those games too.”

She relaxed into what was easiest, into the default comfort her mind made for her to return to time and time again, the tragic little girl who couldn’t look any piece of her trauma in the eye. Talya let the worries slip away as if they didn’t matter and very soon after, they didn’t. Any time she felt the prickling return of anxiety or worry that Mamapapa would be cross with her she snuffed it out and pretended it didn’t exist.

Instead she lifted her head and tilted it, eyes pinning to the soft, lazy white late-summer clouds hanging in the sunset sky and studied their shapes. Nobody began to describe a one and Talya’s eyes left the cloud she’d been trying to sort out, glanced at where Nobody was looking, and studied it. Her eyelids narrowed as she concentrated, following the shape and smiling triumphant, happy and wide shortly after. “I can see it!” She proclaimed with delight.

Too loud! Too loud! What if Mamapapa is near!

La la la la la!!! I can’t hear you!!!

“I like a lot of games!” Talya proclaimed happily, eyes suddenly bright, all former misery and fear stuffed in a box inside her, threatening to break the hinges and explode with the lightest tap. “I like playing how-many-leaves-can-you-crunch when they’re all dead on the ground in the fall and I like playing how-many-bugs-are-under-that-log when I find an old log on the ground and I like playing how-many-bugs-are-under-that-rock which is sort of like how-many-bugs-are-under-that-log I guess but I play that one more frequently. Oh! I like to try and touch the fish in the water! But a lot of times I accidentally get water up my nose and it hurts a lot.” She laughed and then sighed a happy sigh.

Gosh, she loved talking about games to play!

“I like every game.” Talya decided with a little bobbing nod of her head, correcting her earlier statement where she'd simply said she liked a lot of games. She doubted there was a game out there she didn't like!