The Ride

She appears with a twinkle, and that pursed little smile she sports when she is trying to get away with something. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Surprisingly, I am. We ditch our shoes and head out to the dock, shifting our bottoms carefully so as to be at the very edge without being IN the water.

The early air is cool and the sky the color of macaroni and cheese. And the sun ripples on the channel waves as boats head out to fish. It is a perfect moment: communing with nature in a quiet hour with my not-so-little girl.

We hold hands and let our toes dance dangerously close to the water. We giggle. We watch geese and gulls and herons and wonder why the owl on the pole next door has not moved since the last time we sat together like this.

“I think he’s pretend, Mommy.”

And I marvel at this girl, so grown up in so many ways. The previous day we had spent at Cedar Point. She proved fearless, and I will never forget her gleeful look as she hung suspended over one hundred feet in the air before plunging sixty miles an hour on the giant arm of the Skyhawk. Or watched her with her cousin bounding from the Corkscrew three times. They even got to stand in line all by themselves. She conquered seven different coasters and countless other thrill rides.

But I laughed that she still wanted to ride the baby antique cars, the ones she had to stuff her long legs into and experience the radial circle go around and around and around. Seems less than thrilling to me. Or the balloon ride in Snoopy Land that takes young riders about three feet into the air in a similar practiced circle.

And that is where we are. Trapped between the pudgy toddler who fearlessly wanted to explore everything and the hazel-eyed long legged beauty with a wicked sense of humor. The girl that now drags her little brother into her lap to read to HIM instead of cuddling close to hear a story.

The girl that steals my breath with her questions and ideas, but still believes in magic and heaven and an owl on a pole who hasn’t moved in days.

And I cling to this morning on the dock tighter than she held to the Gemini. And the sky whitens and we keep giggling and I know that this is the best ride of all.