One Walk. Two Outlooks.
A Flash Fiction Story.
Alana walked slowly, dragging her feet on the sidewalk as she followed behind her bouncy, exuberant son. She groggily yawned as she continued to scroll through her phone, barely taking in the text and pictures in front of her. It had been another late night due to the booming sound of thunder crashing loudly as the intense flashes of lightning lit up the summer sky. Three-year-old Mark had pulled her out of a sound sleep and dragged her down the hall to his bed. There they both slept off and on for the rest of the night with him squirming all about, kicking her repeatedly in the ribs and stomach. Alana wanted to sleep in this morning, but Mark had other plans. He begged and pleaded for them to go for a walk.
Despite the thick, humid air that lingered that morning, the little boy had convinced his mom that a walk would do them good to get some ‘fresh air.’ Alana balked at her son’s request at first, yet yielded eventually, figuring they would turn around once they reached the end of the block. Now they were three miles from home, and she very much regretted this decision entirely. Her clothes clung to her, wet and uncomfortable. The only reprieve from this unwanted situation was that everywhere around them was like a ghost town. They had not once come across another walker or jogger. They probably saw the forecast and smartly stayed home.
Alana continued to aimlessly open one social app after another. She scoffed at her one friend’s vacation pictures and smugly judged another wealthy friend for gaining too much weight after her overindulgent, luxurious stay in Europe for almost a month. She continued to judge how her single friends’ lives were not really good or better than hers. Alana thought this would make her feel happier about her life, but actually made her more bitter and snappier to her family. Every two seconds, Mark would yell ‘Mommy’ and half the time, she would not respond, secretly wishing he would leave her alone. That usually never worked, especially today, so she would huff and yell ‘what’ louder than intended.
“Mommy! Mommy! Did you see that?”
“What? Oh yes, honey, very nice.”
“And did you see that? That was so cool!”
“Uh-huh, sure, whatever.”
They finally made it back home, sweat dripping off of them. Alana groaned as she dreaded having to give Mark another bath. The boy loved to get dirty every chance he got, but this time he had miraculously avoided the mud. They came in the door and Mark ran on ahead after kicking off his shoes, sending them flying in two different directions. Alana grumbled as she collected her son’s errant shoes and placed them neatly on the shoe rack. Feeling rather cross and gross, her foul mood prevailed as she was about to let into Mark about his disregard for the rules for the millionth time when she heard him exclaim happily in the other room to someone. Apparently Alana’s husband was home for lunch.
“Daddy! You’ll never guess what we did. Mommy and I went on an adventure! We saw bugs, a bunny, and three squirrels! Then we saw a huge plane fly right over us. It was so cool!”
“Wow, Mark! That sounds like a great walk. Hi, honey. How are you?”
Alana leaned against the entryway wall that led out of their mudroom. Her heart caught in her throat as guilt encapsulated it after hearing what a delightful morning their son had just had, while she had internally complained the whole time. She had missed out on watching her son light up at the smallest and simplest things in life.
Suppressing tears, Alana powered down her phone and walked over to her husband and son. She placed her arms around them both and said, “Grateful.”
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Hebrews 10:24
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I love this…such a reminder to be present in the moments…
This is beauty 💖