Exercise- Marker, Run, Level, Laughter, Copper

author's note: managed to get all of them in there except copper. damn!

She comes home everyday with more marker on her arm. Apparently she thinks it’s pretty. I keep telling her she’ll clog her pores and she answers back with the cutest smile, “What’s a pore?” Sometimes, it’s just so hard to relate with her. She’s so young and simple after all and I’m old and complicated. I wonder if other mothers have such a hard time communicating with their kids.

The thing is, she never stops asking questions. Now I know how my own mother felt. On one hand, I’m just so thrilled she’s got that curious itch to her and on the other, I get so damn annoyed that I have to explain everything to her. And obviously my explanations just aren’t cutting it, as the questions never stop.

She’s only five but already I’ve bought her a dictionary. I found a full set of encyclopedias at a yard sale a couple of months ago and she’s working her way through them. I mean, she’s actually reading them all the way through. She’s such a bright kid. I’m proud. She’s definitely all mine.

At night, I run a bath for her and we tell stories back and forth. I leave off at a crucial part and she just picks it right up. Normally, her plot lines tend to lean towards the adventures of whatever letter encyclopedia she’s on that week, so the other night was full of B words. I started the story with a fish swimming in the darkest part of the ocean, wondering what it’s like to breathe air and we somehow ended up above sea level in Berlin with Josephine Baker as our protagonist, searching for her long lost bard. Like I said, the kid is bright.

Sometimes, I get scared she hates me because her father isn’t around. And I have no idea how I’ll explain to her that her father is more interested in methamphetamines than he is in watching his little girl flower and become a woman. I can only imagine how much it will hurt her to hear that. I don’t want to be the one to bring such a depressing message. I only want to make her laugh and smile at the world.

Her laughter is the elixir to my soul. She offers it up like she thinks it’ll never run out, and I hope that is true. I hope so much for her, but most of all, I never want her laughter to stop.