2016Bluestone

The Leap! Paula Beasley

The day was gray, but the rain was soft. The child wore a striped pink Supergirl shirt, jeans, and pink rain boots. Her red hair peeked out from under a pink hoodie. She glanced briefly at her mother before looking quickly back at the puddle before her. A smile crept over her face as she contemplated her next move. Should she do it? Would she get in trouble? Was Mommy watching? Taking her chances, she gathered her courage, scrunched down as low as she could go, and LEAPED into the air! It was exhilarating! She was flying! Her feet landed a second later in the middle of the small puddle creating a mighty SPLASH! She giggled as the water rose up past her boots and soaked her socks and pants. Looking back, she saw her Mommy, cell phone raised in front of her, capturing the moment on video, laughing with her in joy. Mommy watched as her daughter stood at the edge of the puddle. See- ing the thought as it crossed her face, Mommy grabbed her cell phone. Quickly, she opened the camera app and focused the phone on her child. Video ready, she quietly waited for her baby to make the choice. A moment later, red hair was streaming behind her daughter as the little one jumped. It took only an instant, but in that split second, Mommy could see all the leaps, jumps, and falls to come - her daughter’s first leap into a classroom, her first jump into love, the first fall of her bro- ken heart. For now, though, she gathered her baby with the shining face and slight- ly damp red hair into her arms and put the cell phone away. Together with her giggling daughter, they jumped into the next puddle. The fu- ture would come soon enough, and they would face their puddles, small steps, giant leaps, and falls, hand-in-hand until the little girl raced into adulthood and her mother took the final leap into the arms of Heaven.

Paula Beasley is a librarian at Bluefield College. She loves reading, her dogs, and her family.

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