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midorisakuraWritten for cottoncandy bingo. The prompt was ice cream.
"Vanilla please," Becky said her order in a quiet voice, clutching her grandma's hand tightly. Her eyes darted to her grandma's to see if she'd done alright.
"Vanilla's a great flavor," Grandma Rose said, smiling, and she squeezed Becky’s hand.
"What flavor are you getting Gramma Rose?" Becky asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Vanilla," she said, "with sprinkles."
There was a twinkle Grandma Rose’s eyes and Becky giggled, hiding behind her grandmother when the man behind the counter handed her the ice cream cone. It was piled high with the creamy vanilla treat.
"Go on," her grandma encouraged, "take your ice cream Becky."
Becky gathered her courage, biting her bottom lip as she reached for her special treat. She was careful not to let her fingers touch the man's, and plucked the cone from his hand.
"Thank you," she said, looking at the floor.
It wasn't easy for her to make eye contact with strangers. It had been hard enough for her to reach for the cone in the first place and she hid behind her Grandma Rose once more, holding the cone carefully, so as not to drop it on the floor. She was always very careful with how she held her cone. She needed both hands and all ten fingers needed to be touching the paper wrapped around the bottom. Not the whole finger though, just the fingertips.
Even though Grandma Rose always got sprinkles on her ice cream and asked Becky if she wanted to get the colorful confectionery, she always refused. They were too bright and crunchy and she didn't like the way they sometimes got stuck in the corner of her Grandma Rose’s mouth. It made her nervous and she didn't like it at all. That's why she stuck to plain vanilla.
Her grandmother got her cone and paid for it, and then Becky followed her out of the parlor, making sure to keep her eyes on the flowered dress that her grandmother was wearing so she wouldn't lose her. The parlor was only a couple of blocks from Grandma Rose's house, but Becky had a hard time remembering the route, no matter how many times she walked it.
With school starting in just a few weeks, it was important for her to remember how to get to and from Grandma Rose's house. That was one reason why she and Grandma Rose made a daily trip to Richardson’s Ice Cream Parlor.
On the way to and from the parlor, Grandma Rose always pointed out Becky's school so that she could count the number of steps and lefts and rights it took to get home. She hoped that, by the time school started, she’d be able to remember.
As they walked, Becky licked a line around the edge of her ice cream so that it wouldn't drip and make her fingers sticky. She concentrated on the portions of her ice cream which were beginning to melt, licking the ice cream with careful attention so that it wouldn't slip and slide off the cone.
That had happened once, and though they'd gone back to get another cone, Becky hadn't liked how the ice cream had smashed and melted on the sidewalk. It made her feel sad for the ice cream, and she didn't like being wasteful. Becky had been extremely cautious and vigilant with her ice cream since then, and hadn't lost another one.
It was a matter of pride for
her. If she could master her ice cream cone, then maybe she could remember the
way to and from school too. She really hoped so.
When her grandmother stopped walking, Becky took one last lick of her ice cream and then looked up at her grandma. Her stomach felt funny, like something was swimming around in it. Grandma Rose had called it, 'butterflies in the tummy.' Becky didn't think there were butterflies in her tummy though, because it was filled with ice cream and butterflies were pretty and fun, but her tummy felt all sick and ugly. It always got this way whenever Grandma Rose stopped to point out the school so that Becky would pay attention to the route. Maybe if she concentrated hard enough, Becky would remember it this time.
"Here's the school Becky," Grandma Rose said, pointing at the huge, red brick building.
Becky nodded, unable to speak because she was busy trying to picture what the inside of the building looked like and where her classroom might be. Her parents always told her that she used her imagination too much and that was why she kept getting lost all the time, but she couldn’t help it, the pictures and ideas just came to her, and, most of the time it was fun to imagine what something would be like.
She was imagining what the first day of school was going to be like. She was worried about finding her classroom, if her teacher was going to be nice or mean, and if she was going to make any new friends. Becoming a first grader and going to a new school at the same time made her very nervous.
"Are you ready?" Grandma Rose asked, and though she didn't feel ready, Becky nodded.
She lifted her eyes to look at her grandmother and took a deep breath. She could do this, all she had to do was focus and think positively like her mother always told her.
"Okay," she said, and a drip of ice cream plopped onto the sidewalk. It was white and looked kind of like a bunny rabbit.
Becky quickly took a lick of her cone, catching another drip just as it was falling. Thankfully she hadn’t gotten any of the sticky substance on her fingers. She hated how melted ice cream made her fingers feel, and how it made them stick together. It just felt dirty to her.
“Becky, are you paying attention?” Grandma Rose asked, and Becky blushed with embarrassment.
She shook her head and looked down at her feet. Another drip of ice cream fell with a ‘splat’ that Becky imagined felt like an earthquake to the ants that were running through the cracks of the sidewalk. This one looked like a dragon, and Becky wondered if any of the ants would pile onto its back and try to make it fly. And then she pictured it flying through the air, how frightened the ants would be.
“Becky,” her grandmother said in a tone of voice that made Becky look up. Her grandmother was disappointed in her, and that made her heart thump, thump, thump in her chest. “You need to pay attention; I can’t come to pick you up after school every day.”
“Yes, Grandma Rose,” Becky said, and she licked her cone so that no more dragons would fall from it.
“Do you know how many steps we’ve gone so far?” her grandmother asked, and Becky scrunched her eyes up and thought real hard.
She counted the steps in her head, remembering that she had taken seven steps after the rabbit-shaped splash of ice cream had splatted on the sidewalk.
“Seven,” Becky said, and her grandmother rewarded her with a smile.
“Very good,” she said, and she took a bite of her sprinkle covered ice cream.
Becky didn’t like to take bites of her ice cream, she liked to lick it. It made the ice cream last longer and didn’t give her the ‘cold’ headaches that biting the icy treat sometimes did.
“We’re going to take a right at this corner,” her grandmother said, and Becky nodded, licking her cone.
A right at the dragon, she thought to herself, and then followed her grandmother’s flowered dress. She counted the number of steps she took in her head, hopping and jumping for some of them. There were trees and flowers lining the walkway and she silently said her hellos to them, knowing that they would be disappointed if she didn’t.
When her grandmother stopped, Becky stopped, and another drop of ice cream fell to the ground. Becky took a quick peek at the splat it had made on the sidewalk before turning her attention to her grandma. This one looked like a spider, except it had too many legs. She wrinkled her nose up in disgust. She didn’t like spiders at all.
“How many steps?” her grandmother asked, and Becky closed her eyes, reciting the numbers of steps, hops and jumps she’d made after turning the Dragon’s Corner.
“Um…” Becky mentally ticked off her actions in her head: one hop, two jumps, three steps, a hop, skip, two steps, jump, jump, hop, skip, step, step, step.
“Becky…” her grandmother’s voice sounded impatient.
“Um, twenty steps?” Becky asked, opening her eyes. She wasn’t sure how many steps each jump counted for.
“Twenty-five steps,” her grandmother corrected her, and Becky nodded.
“Twenty-five steps,” she repeated.
Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at the dragon and then twenty-five steps from the dragon to the spider with too many legs, she thought, and she licked a big circle around her ice cream, because it looked like it was going to drip onto her fingers.
“Remember to look both ways before crossing the street,” Grandma Rose said, and Becky hadn’t even realized that they’d gotten to the corner of the street.
She was supposed to remember the name of the streets, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t. She glanced at the street sign as she waited for a car to pass. The word was a big one and she had a hard time understanding what the letters were writing.
Becky looked first one way, and then the other, copying Grandma Rose’s actions. When the street was empty, she and Grandma Rose stepped off the curb and quickly crossed the street.
Spider’s Crossing, she thought, and then she knew why the spider seemed to have too many legs. It obviously hadn’t looked both ways before crossing the street, and had gotten mushed.
“Are you counting Becky?” her grandmother asked when they had made it to the other side of the street.
Becky nodded, even though she had forgotten that she needed to count. She had been worrying about the spider’s family, and feeling sorry for them, because their spider brother or daddy was dead. Look both ways before crossing, she thought, and then started counting in her head.
Becky skipped after her grandmother and twirled, flinging some of her melting ice cream off the cone and into the grass at the edges of the sidewalk. She stopped twirling when her grandmother turned to look at her.
“Becky Ann,” Grandma Rose said, and she had her hands on her hips.
Becky wondered when her grandmother had finished eating her ice cream cone. There was a lone sprinkle on her grandmother’s cheek and Becky thought that it must be awfully lonely not to be with the other sprinkles.
“Sorry Grandma Rose,” Becky said, and she licked her ice cream, but not before another drip plopped onto the sidewalk. This one was a lion, and it was fierce and had an angry look on its face, just like Grandma Rose.
“How many steps was that?” her grandmother asked.
Becky sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and thought real hard. Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, and look both ways before crossing the street…
She’d skipped and twirled and made ice cream fly all over the grass. She’d forgotten to say hello to the daffodils in Mrs. Carter’s garden, but she’d remember to do that tomorrow. Squinting, she counted the number of skips in her head.
“Twelve,” Becky said with confidence, “twelve skips.”
“You’re supposed to be walking, not skipping,” her grandmother chided, but she smiled. “It’s fifteen steps when you’re not skipping.”
Becky nodded, and added the number in her head: Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, look both ways before crossing the street, and fifteen steps or twelve skips to the fierce, angry lion.
“Take a left here,” Grandma Rose said, “and don’t forget to count as we go,” she added.
Becky licked her ice cream; she was almost down to the cone. She followed after her grandmother. She had to take big footsteps so that she didn’t step on any of the cracks by accident. Someone at her other school, when she’d only been a kindergartener, had told her that it would break her mother’s back, and she didn’t want that to happen.
She could hear the lion roaring after them, even long after they had left his corner, and it made her look back over her shoulder, just in case he had decided to come after them. The Lion’s Path would not be a good place to get stuck, not at all.
She almost walked right into her grandmother when the woman had stopped walking, and Becky looked up. They were at another corner and Becky felt lost, even though she and Grandma Rose had walked the same way just yesterday. Her stomach felt tight and she didn’t lick her ice cream in time to avoid a sticky drip.
It felt warm when it splashed onto her finger and then her ice cream dripped and dropped onto the sidewalk. And when she looked, there was a puppy dog staring up at her. Its eyes were wide and the puppy dog’s tail seemed to be waving. He wanted to go home with her, but her parents wouldn’t let her have a dog. It made her feel sad.
“How many steps was that Becky?” her grandmother asked.
Becky had taken big, big steps to avoid stepping on the cracks, and there were a lot of cracks on the sidewalk. She stared at the puppy and thought back to the Lion’s Path. If she listened very carefully, she could hear the lion roaring in the distance. It’s voice wasn’t very loud now, though, because she and her grandmother were far enough away.
“Twenty steps,” Becky said, standing up on her tiptoes and licking her ice cream.
“Very good,” her grandmother said, and Becky’s stomach felt better. She had only guessed at the number of steps she’d taken to get away from the lion.
Becky smiled, and thought: Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, look both ways before crossing the street, and fifteen steps or twelve skips to the fierce, angry lion, take a left at the Lion’s Path to avoid being eaten, and then twenty steps to the puppy.
“Do you remember which way to go?” Grandma Rose asked, and Becky thought, trying to remember which way they had gone yesterday.
But, it was all a jumble in her mind and she couldn’t remember if they’d turned left or right. Nothing looked familiar. She shook her head and looked away from her grandmother so that she wouldn’t have to see the anger or disappointment.
She heard her grandmother sigh, and Becky’s stomach twisted. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she stared at the puppy, wishing that it could come home with her.
“I’m sorry,” Becky said, looking at her feet.
“That’s okay,” Grandma Rose said, but her voice sounded sad.
Becky dug a hole in her ice cream with her tongue because she really didn’t like eating the cone and there was no more ice cream left outside of the cone for her to lick. It took a lot of concentration and she could feel her grandmother’s eyes on her when she’d finished.
“We take another left,” Grandma Rose said as Becky tilted the cone up, and drank the rest of the ice cream which had turned into a melted mess. She took extra care not to spill any of it down the front of her tee-shirt which had a pretty butterfly on it.
Becky offered the empty cone to her grandmother once she was certain that she’d finished every last creamy bit of the ice cream that she could. A little of it dribbled down her chin and she swiped at it with her tongue. She didn’t like her face to feel sticky either.
“Thank you Becky,” Grandma Rose said, but she didn’t take a bite of the cone. “We’re almost home, and you can wash up once we get there,” she said when Becky wiped her hand on her jeans and frowned when her fingers were still sticky.
“Let’s count the last few steps,” Grandma Rose said.
“Okay,” Becky said, trying to keep the directions and numbers straight in her head: Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, look both ways before crossing the street, and fifteen steps or twelve skips to the fierce, angry lion, take a left at the Lion’s Path to avoid being eaten, and then twenty steps to the puppy. Turn left at Puppy’s Place, but don’t bring him home.
And, together they counted the steps aloud, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!”
Becky hugged her grandma, thanking her for the ice cream and then raced ahead of her, up the path leading to the house.
“How many steps?” Grandma Rose yelled after her.
“Ten!” Becky shouted as she sprinted up the steps and through the door that her grandfather had opened.
She had to wash her hands because she couldn’t stand how sticky and dirty they felt. Her chin was starting to feel itchy, and she needed to get the remnants of the melted ice cream off sooner rather than later.
She called out a belated, “Hi Grandpa,” as she passed her grandfather, and made a beeline for the bathroom.
“How’d she do today?” Becky could hear her grandfather ask her grandma.
“We’ll try again tomorrow,” Grandma Rose said, and Becky’s stomach sank because she knew that meant she hadn’t done well at all.
I’ll do better tomorrow, I’ll remember right, she thought, and she stuck her tongue out at her reflection in the mirror.
The next two weeks passed quickly for Becky. Every day, she and Grandma Rose walked to and from the ice cream parlor, and, though there were other ice cream splats that made different shapes, Becky remembered the rabbit, the dragon, the spider, the lion and the puppy.
Every time she passed by the place where each of them had fallen, she thought of them and wondered what they were doing. Was the reason the grass was getting so brown because the rabbit had been eating it? Was the dragon giving death-defying rides to ant children? Where had the spider family buried their lost brother? Was the lion stalking her, getting ready to pounce when she least expected it? And had someone finally brought the sad little puppy home to live with them? Becky hoped so.
When the first day of school arrived, Becky was nervous. Grandma Rose would be walking her to school, but then she had to find her way home again. She was fearful that maybe the rabbit would distract her like in the movie where a girl named Alice followed a rabbit down a hole, or the dragon would offer her a ride, or maybe she’d forget to look both ways before crossing the street and be splatted like the spider, or maybe the lion would finally pounce on her, or maybe the puppy would follow her home…
Her teacher, Miss Elizabeth, was nice, and she’d also made some new friends – Heather and Melanie. But, when the time to go home approached, Becky felt sick to her stomach, and her palms were sweaty, and she didn’t think she could find her way home at all.
When Becky walked out of the school as the last bell rang, she ran down the stone steps with her new friends, but she didn’t know which way to turn – the way her friends went, left, or right?
Suddenly, the rabbit popped up out of the grass and twitched its nose, and Becky felt some of the butterflies in her stomach fly away. She followed the rabbit as it hopped down the sidewalk, and it left her at the dragon, which was busy giving rides to ants.
She followed the dragon as he flew to the right and before she knew it, she was at Spider’s Crossing. Little blue flowers had been left in memorial, and she said a quick prayer for the spider’s soul and then remembered to look both ways, more than once, before crossing the street.
She skipped along cautiously, remembering that a lion lurked nearby, and when she got to the Lion’s Path, she carefully skipped to the left and out of his reach. She heard happy barking in the distance, and raced to the end of the street where the puppy with the wagging tail waited, and then she was at the tricky part. The part she always forgot.
“Which way do I go?” Becky thought aloud, and the puppy barked, and licked her hand. He ran off to the left, and she followed.
Unsure, Becky walked, keeping a careful eye on the puppy that continued to lead the way. And then, just as she feared that she’d been led astray, she saw her grandparent’s house. She smiled, and stooped to thank the puppy, but he was gone.
“Becky?” her grandfather called from the porch and Becky ran down the path and up the stairs and hugged her grandpa.
“That our girl?” Grandma Rose asked from inside the house.
“It sure is,” Grandpa said, and Becky could hear wonder in his voice.
Grandma Rose stepped onto the porch and Becky’s heart swelled when her grandmother’s eyes shone with pride.
“Welcome home,” she said and Becky hugged her grandma tight.
During dinner, before Mom and Dad came to pick her up, Becky told her grandparents all about her first day of school. And, when her grandmother had asked how she’d been able to remember her way home, she launched into the tale about how she’d had the help of a hoppy rabbit, a flying dragon, a poor, dead spider, a grouchy lion, and a friendly puppy who all used to be drops of vanilla ice cream.
Her grandparents exchanged a look that Becky did not understand, but Grandma Rose only smiled and remarked on what a ‘remarkably vivid’ imagination she had. Becky was proud of herself. She hoped that she’d be able to find her way home the next day and then the day after that. Maybe one day she’d even be able to find her way home, on her own, without the help of her ice cream friends.
"Vanilla please," Becky said her order in a quiet voice, clutching her grandma's hand tightly. Her eyes darted to her grandma's to see if she'd done alright.
"Vanilla's a great flavor," Grandma Rose said, smiling, and she squeezed Becky’s hand.
"What flavor are you getting Gramma Rose?" Becky asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Vanilla," she said, "with sprinkles."
There was a twinkle Grandma Rose’s eyes and Becky giggled, hiding behind her grandmother when the man behind the counter handed her the ice cream cone. It was piled high with the creamy vanilla treat.
"Go on," her grandma encouraged, "take your ice cream Becky."
Becky gathered her courage, biting her bottom lip as she reached for her special treat. She was careful not to let her fingers touch the man's, and plucked the cone from his hand.
"Thank you," she said, looking at the floor.
It wasn't easy for her to make eye contact with strangers. It had been hard enough for her to reach for the cone in the first place and she hid behind her Grandma Rose once more, holding the cone carefully, so as not to drop it on the floor. She was always very careful with how she held her cone. She needed both hands and all ten fingers needed to be touching the paper wrapped around the bottom. Not the whole finger though, just the fingertips.
Even though Grandma Rose always got sprinkles on her ice cream and asked Becky if she wanted to get the colorful confectionery, she always refused. They were too bright and crunchy and she didn't like the way they sometimes got stuck in the corner of her Grandma Rose’s mouth. It made her nervous and she didn't like it at all. That's why she stuck to plain vanilla.
Her grandmother got her cone and paid for it, and then Becky followed her out of the parlor, making sure to keep her eyes on the flowered dress that her grandmother was wearing so she wouldn't lose her. The parlor was only a couple of blocks from Grandma Rose's house, but Becky had a hard time remembering the route, no matter how many times she walked it.
With school starting in just a few weeks, it was important for her to remember how to get to and from Grandma Rose's house. That was one reason why she and Grandma Rose made a daily trip to Richardson’s Ice Cream Parlor.
On the way to and from the parlor, Grandma Rose always pointed out Becky's school so that she could count the number of steps and lefts and rights it took to get home. She hoped that, by the time school started, she’d be able to remember.
As they walked, Becky licked a line around the edge of her ice cream so that it wouldn't drip and make her fingers sticky. She concentrated on the portions of her ice cream which were beginning to melt, licking the ice cream with careful attention so that it wouldn't slip and slide off the cone.
That had happened once, and though they'd gone back to get another cone, Becky hadn't liked how the ice cream had smashed and melted on the sidewalk. It made her feel sad for the ice cream, and she didn't like being wasteful. Becky had been extremely cautious and vigilant with her ice cream since then, and hadn't lost another one.
It was a matter of pride for
her. If she could master her ice cream cone, then maybe she could remember the
way to and from school too. She really hoped so.
When her grandmother stopped walking, Becky took one last lick of her ice cream and then looked up at her grandma. Her stomach felt funny, like something was swimming around in it. Grandma Rose had called it, 'butterflies in the tummy.' Becky didn't think there were butterflies in her tummy though, because it was filled with ice cream and butterflies were pretty and fun, but her tummy felt all sick and ugly. It always got this way whenever Grandma Rose stopped to point out the school so that Becky would pay attention to the route. Maybe if she concentrated hard enough, Becky would remember it this time.
"Here's the school Becky," Grandma Rose said, pointing at the huge, red brick building.
Becky nodded, unable to speak because she was busy trying to picture what the inside of the building looked like and where her classroom might be. Her parents always told her that she used her imagination too much and that was why she kept getting lost all the time, but she couldn’t help it, the pictures and ideas just came to her, and, most of the time it was fun to imagine what something would be like.
She was imagining what the first day of school was going to be like. She was worried about finding her classroom, if her teacher was going to be nice or mean, and if she was going to make any new friends. Becoming a first grader and going to a new school at the same time made her very nervous.
"Are you ready?" Grandma Rose asked, and though she didn't feel ready, Becky nodded.
She lifted her eyes to look at her grandmother and took a deep breath. She could do this, all she had to do was focus and think positively like her mother always told her.
"Okay," she said, and a drip of ice cream plopped onto the sidewalk. It was white and looked kind of like a bunny rabbit.
Becky quickly took a lick of her cone, catching another drip just as it was falling. Thankfully she hadn’t gotten any of the sticky substance on her fingers. She hated how melted ice cream made her fingers feel, and how it made them stick together. It just felt dirty to her.
“Becky, are you paying attention?” Grandma Rose asked, and Becky blushed with embarrassment.
She shook her head and looked down at her feet. Another drip of ice cream fell with a ‘splat’ that Becky imagined felt like an earthquake to the ants that were running through the cracks of the sidewalk. This one looked like a dragon, and Becky wondered if any of the ants would pile onto its back and try to make it fly. And then she pictured it flying through the air, how frightened the ants would be.
“Becky,” her grandmother said in a tone of voice that made Becky look up. Her grandmother was disappointed in her, and that made her heart thump, thump, thump in her chest. “You need to pay attention; I can’t come to pick you up after school every day.”
“Yes, Grandma Rose,” Becky said, and she licked her cone so that no more dragons would fall from it.
“Do you know how many steps we’ve gone so far?” her grandmother asked, and Becky scrunched her eyes up and thought real hard.
She counted the steps in her head, remembering that she had taken seven steps after the rabbit-shaped splash of ice cream had splatted on the sidewalk.
“Seven,” Becky said, and her grandmother rewarded her with a smile.
“Very good,” she said, and she took a bite of her sprinkle covered ice cream.
Becky didn’t like to take bites of her ice cream, she liked to lick it. It made the ice cream last longer and didn’t give her the ‘cold’ headaches that biting the icy treat sometimes did.
“We’re going to take a right at this corner,” her grandmother said, and Becky nodded, licking her cone.
A right at the dragon, she thought to herself, and then followed her grandmother’s flowered dress. She counted the number of steps she took in her head, hopping and jumping for some of them. There were trees and flowers lining the walkway and she silently said her hellos to them, knowing that they would be disappointed if she didn’t.
When her grandmother stopped, Becky stopped, and another drop of ice cream fell to the ground. Becky took a quick peek at the splat it had made on the sidewalk before turning her attention to her grandma. This one looked like a spider, except it had too many legs. She wrinkled her nose up in disgust. She didn’t like spiders at all.
“How many steps?” her grandmother asked, and Becky closed her eyes, reciting the numbers of steps, hops and jumps she’d made after turning the Dragon’s Corner.
“Um…” Becky mentally ticked off her actions in her head: one hop, two jumps, three steps, a hop, skip, two steps, jump, jump, hop, skip, step, step, step.
“Becky…” her grandmother’s voice sounded impatient.
“Um, twenty steps?” Becky asked, opening her eyes. She wasn’t sure how many steps each jump counted for.
“Twenty-five steps,” her grandmother corrected her, and Becky nodded.
“Twenty-five steps,” she repeated.
Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at the dragon and then twenty-five steps from the dragon to the spider with too many legs, she thought, and she licked a big circle around her ice cream, because it looked like it was going to drip onto her fingers.
“Remember to look both ways before crossing the street,” Grandma Rose said, and Becky hadn’t even realized that they’d gotten to the corner of the street.
She was supposed to remember the name of the streets, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t. She glanced at the street sign as she waited for a car to pass. The word was a big one and she had a hard time understanding what the letters were writing.
Becky looked first one way, and then the other, copying Grandma Rose’s actions. When the street was empty, she and Grandma Rose stepped off the curb and quickly crossed the street.
Spider’s Crossing, she thought, and then she knew why the spider seemed to have too many legs. It obviously hadn’t looked both ways before crossing the street, and had gotten mushed.
“Are you counting Becky?” her grandmother asked when they had made it to the other side of the street.
Becky nodded, even though she had forgotten that she needed to count. She had been worrying about the spider’s family, and feeling sorry for them, because their spider brother or daddy was dead. Look both ways before crossing, she thought, and then started counting in her head.
Becky skipped after her grandmother and twirled, flinging some of her melting ice cream off the cone and into the grass at the edges of the sidewalk. She stopped twirling when her grandmother turned to look at her.
“Becky Ann,” Grandma Rose said, and she had her hands on her hips.
Becky wondered when her grandmother had finished eating her ice cream cone. There was a lone sprinkle on her grandmother’s cheek and Becky thought that it must be awfully lonely not to be with the other sprinkles.
“Sorry Grandma Rose,” Becky said, and she licked her ice cream, but not before another drip plopped onto the sidewalk. This one was a lion, and it was fierce and had an angry look on its face, just like Grandma Rose.
“How many steps was that?” her grandmother asked.
Becky sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and thought real hard. Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, and look both ways before crossing the street…
She’d skipped and twirled and made ice cream fly all over the grass. She’d forgotten to say hello to the daffodils in Mrs. Carter’s garden, but she’d remember to do that tomorrow. Squinting, she counted the number of skips in her head.
“Twelve,” Becky said with confidence, “twelve skips.”
“You’re supposed to be walking, not skipping,” her grandmother chided, but she smiled. “It’s fifteen steps when you’re not skipping.”
Becky nodded, and added the number in her head: Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, look both ways before crossing the street, and fifteen steps or twelve skips to the fierce, angry lion.
“Take a left here,” Grandma Rose said, “and don’t forget to count as we go,” she added.
Becky licked her ice cream; she was almost down to the cone. She followed after her grandmother. She had to take big footsteps so that she didn’t step on any of the cracks by accident. Someone at her other school, when she’d only been a kindergartener, had told her that it would break her mother’s back, and she didn’t want that to happen.
She could hear the lion roaring after them, even long after they had left his corner, and it made her look back over her shoulder, just in case he had decided to come after them. The Lion’s Path would not be a good place to get stuck, not at all.
She almost walked right into her grandmother when the woman had stopped walking, and Becky looked up. They were at another corner and Becky felt lost, even though she and Grandma Rose had walked the same way just yesterday. Her stomach felt tight and she didn’t lick her ice cream in time to avoid a sticky drip.
It felt warm when it splashed onto her finger and then her ice cream dripped and dropped onto the sidewalk. And when she looked, there was a puppy dog staring up at her. Its eyes were wide and the puppy dog’s tail seemed to be waving. He wanted to go home with her, but her parents wouldn’t let her have a dog. It made her feel sad.
“How many steps was that Becky?” her grandmother asked.
Becky had taken big, big steps to avoid stepping on the cracks, and there were a lot of cracks on the sidewalk. She stared at the puppy and thought back to the Lion’s Path. If she listened very carefully, she could hear the lion roaring in the distance. It’s voice wasn’t very loud now, though, because she and her grandmother were far enough away.
“Twenty steps,” Becky said, standing up on her tiptoes and licking her ice cream.
“Very good,” her grandmother said, and Becky’s stomach felt better. She had only guessed at the number of steps she’d taken to get away from the lion.
Becky smiled, and thought: Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, look both ways before crossing the street, and fifteen steps or twelve skips to the fierce, angry lion, take a left at the Lion’s Path to avoid being eaten, and then twenty steps to the puppy.
“Do you remember which way to go?” Grandma Rose asked, and Becky thought, trying to remember which way they had gone yesterday.
But, it was all a jumble in her mind and she couldn’t remember if they’d turned left or right. Nothing looked familiar. She shook her head and looked away from her grandmother so that she wouldn’t have to see the anger or disappointment.
She heard her grandmother sigh, and Becky’s stomach twisted. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she stared at the puppy, wishing that it could come home with her.
“I’m sorry,” Becky said, looking at her feet.
“That’s okay,” Grandma Rose said, but her voice sounded sad.
Becky dug a hole in her ice cream with her tongue because she really didn’t like eating the cone and there was no more ice cream left outside of the cone for her to lick. It took a lot of concentration and she could feel her grandmother’s eyes on her when she’d finished.
“We take another left,” Grandma Rose said as Becky tilted the cone up, and drank the rest of the ice cream which had turned into a melted mess. She took extra care not to spill any of it down the front of her tee-shirt which had a pretty butterfly on it.
Becky offered the empty cone to her grandmother once she was certain that she’d finished every last creamy bit of the ice cream that she could. A little of it dribbled down her chin and she swiped at it with her tongue. She didn’t like her face to feel sticky either.
“Thank you Becky,” Grandma Rose said, but she didn’t take a bite of the cone. “We’re almost home, and you can wash up once we get there,” she said when Becky wiped her hand on her jeans and frowned when her fingers were still sticky.
“Let’s count the last few steps,” Grandma Rose said.
“Okay,” Becky said, trying to keep the directions and numbers straight in her head: Seven steps from the rabbit to the dragon, a right at Dragon’s Corner, twenty-five steps from the dragon to the dead, too-many legged spider, look both ways before crossing the street, and fifteen steps or twelve skips to the fierce, angry lion, take a left at the Lion’s Path to avoid being eaten, and then twenty steps to the puppy. Turn left at Puppy’s Place, but don’t bring him home.
And, together they counted the steps aloud, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!”
Becky hugged her grandma, thanking her for the ice cream and then raced ahead of her, up the path leading to the house.
“How many steps?” Grandma Rose yelled after her.
“Ten!” Becky shouted as she sprinted up the steps and through the door that her grandfather had opened.
She had to wash her hands because she couldn’t stand how sticky and dirty they felt. Her chin was starting to feel itchy, and she needed to get the remnants of the melted ice cream off sooner rather than later.
She called out a belated, “Hi Grandpa,” as she passed her grandfather, and made a beeline for the bathroom.
“How’d she do today?” Becky could hear her grandfather ask her grandma.
“We’ll try again tomorrow,” Grandma Rose said, and Becky’s stomach sank because she knew that meant she hadn’t done well at all.
I’ll do better tomorrow, I’ll remember right, she thought, and she stuck her tongue out at her reflection in the mirror.
The next two weeks passed quickly for Becky. Every day, she and Grandma Rose walked to and from the ice cream parlor, and, though there were other ice cream splats that made different shapes, Becky remembered the rabbit, the dragon, the spider, the lion and the puppy.
Every time she passed by the place where each of them had fallen, she thought of them and wondered what they were doing. Was the reason the grass was getting so brown because the rabbit had been eating it? Was the dragon giving death-defying rides to ant children? Where had the spider family buried their lost brother? Was the lion stalking her, getting ready to pounce when she least expected it? And had someone finally brought the sad little puppy home to live with them? Becky hoped so.
When the first day of school arrived, Becky was nervous. Grandma Rose would be walking her to school, but then she had to find her way home again. She was fearful that maybe the rabbit would distract her like in the movie where a girl named Alice followed a rabbit down a hole, or the dragon would offer her a ride, or maybe she’d forget to look both ways before crossing the street and be splatted like the spider, or maybe the lion would finally pounce on her, or maybe the puppy would follow her home…
Her teacher, Miss Elizabeth, was nice, and she’d also made some new friends – Heather and Melanie. But, when the time to go home approached, Becky felt sick to her stomach, and her palms were sweaty, and she didn’t think she could find her way home at all.
When Becky walked out of the school as the last bell rang, she ran down the stone steps with her new friends, but she didn’t know which way to turn – the way her friends went, left, or right?
Suddenly, the rabbit popped up out of the grass and twitched its nose, and Becky felt some of the butterflies in her stomach fly away. She followed the rabbit as it hopped down the sidewalk, and it left her at the dragon, which was busy giving rides to ants.
She followed the dragon as he flew to the right and before she knew it, she was at Spider’s Crossing. Little blue flowers had been left in memorial, and she said a quick prayer for the spider’s soul and then remembered to look both ways, more than once, before crossing the street.
She skipped along cautiously, remembering that a lion lurked nearby, and when she got to the Lion’s Path, she carefully skipped to the left and out of his reach. She heard happy barking in the distance, and raced to the end of the street where the puppy with the wagging tail waited, and then she was at the tricky part. The part she always forgot.
“Which way do I go?” Becky thought aloud, and the puppy barked, and licked her hand. He ran off to the left, and she followed.
Unsure, Becky walked, keeping a careful eye on the puppy that continued to lead the way. And then, just as she feared that she’d been led astray, she saw her grandparent’s house. She smiled, and stooped to thank the puppy, but he was gone.
“Becky?” her grandfather called from the porch and Becky ran down the path and up the stairs and hugged her grandpa.
“That our girl?” Grandma Rose asked from inside the house.
“It sure is,” Grandpa said, and Becky could hear wonder in his voice.
Grandma Rose stepped onto the porch and Becky’s heart swelled when her grandmother’s eyes shone with pride.
“Welcome home,” she said and Becky hugged her grandma tight.
During dinner, before Mom and Dad came to pick her up, Becky told her grandparents all about her first day of school. And, when her grandmother had asked how she’d been able to remember her way home, she launched into the tale about how she’d had the help of a hoppy rabbit, a flying dragon, a poor, dead spider, a grouchy lion, and a friendly puppy who all used to be drops of vanilla ice cream.
Her grandparents exchanged a look that Becky did not understand, but Grandma Rose only smiled and remarked on what a ‘remarkably vivid’ imagination she had. Becky was proud of herself. She hoped that she’d be able to find her way home the next day and then the day after that. Maybe one day she’d even be able to find her way home, on her own, without the help of her ice cream friends.
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