Once Upon a Ride

Once upon a time, there was a girl.  She was tall with auburn hair that never seemed to grow fast enough.  She liked to ride bikes and run in the sunshine to help her think.  

One day she rode with a friend, and they almost crashed into one another.  They were riding fast, too.  Really fast.  Like a speeding bullet.

Out of a nice pink little mouth dropped a very dirty word.  It dropped loud and yell-ish like.  She was scared and mad and rode away.

After her long legs started to hurt, and the hill she rode up became too steep, she stopped.  Like you'd stop for a perfect picnic place that came out of nowhere.  She sat on picnic haunches and waited for the boy to come.

He came, and said she shouldn't be sorry for letting a little word make it past her lips.  Saying mean things like that wasn't in her nature.  What she did was grow apples on an orange tree- and that only happens once in a harvest season.

So, she didn't have to worry about the right-wrong of it, the control like "don't squeeze gerbils- but you do it anyway" of it, the very rude way of it.  She was just content and forgiven and warm inside, like a bath.  A bath in cool waters on a summer day.

The end.

...and the tall girl thought this picture was so funny. and the picture fit the story, like a hand that makes it out of a cookie jar in the nick of time.