Mother Love: January 2012

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Best Surprise

THE BEST SURPRISE

written by Geri L. Phillips

One bright and sunny morning as I walked outside to play, I saw it! There it was on my daddy's truck. It was very big, shiny, painted red and blue, and it was just as I would imagine it to be! My cousin Sammy had one, but it wasn't as shiny and nice. It was the best surprise my daddy had ever given me!

It was the most beautiful swing set I have ever seen. It had two standard swings, a slide, a monkey bar, and my favorite, a bench swing. I could swing with my friend Suzie in that bench swing, and I bet we could really swing high.

Sometimes I would swing with Suzie and other times with KK, my adorable and fluffy grey kitty cat. Other times I would swing by myself and when I was way up high, I even thought maybe I could jump into a fluffy white cloud. Suzie, KK and I played endlessly on my swing set.

As time passed, the paint had peeled off and even the plastic on the bench swing

was cracking in several places. But we continued to play.

One day, Daddy had to take my swing set away. It was no longer safe. He placed it behind our storage shed, with the hopes of fixing it one day, but it would soon be forgotten.

As Suzie and I grew up, we became more interested in riding our bicycles, and we rode them everywhere. I never thought about my shiny swing set again; Until one day when I was playing where I was never allowed to play. There it was. At first glance, I did not recognize it. I even wondered where it came from. As I studied it, I noticed that some of the red and blue paint was still there, but it was mostly rust. I saw the slide, the broken monkey bar, and then I saw the bench swing!

I realized that this was my swing set. I knew that it was mine, yet it was so much smaller than I remembered, and I just glared at it in disbelief and wonderment.

Sadness came over me. It was only then that I began to miss my once shiny, now old and rusty, swing set. Yes, there it was, the best surprise my daddy had ever given me.