Cricket watched as her pa left off to work. She had never gone back in the house after her early visit out back. All there was in the house was cooking and cleaning and the terror twins. Plus she wasn't ready to be bossed about by Kissie just yet. Too early in this beautiful day for all that. So she ran, laughing and spinning, to her spot along the river. Well... they called it the river, but it was more like a midsized stream. Unless, of course, it was early spring when a good rain had melted off a late snow. Then it was a bona fide river. But those early spring days were past and now it was a gentle brook.
She came to her long bend of shallow waters. Here the stream lay full of flat round pebbles. Their colors of brown and gray and green giggled as the sun danced and skipped over them and the sweet water sang. This was her favorite place because this was where her willow stood waiting for her. It casually dipped its tendrils in and out of the water, swaying ever so slightly, tugged by the water's currents. Beneath its lacy boughs she felt hidden from the world.
She jumped up and pushed far back into a natural chair crook. Her tree had separated low, growing with three main branches that formed a perfect place to lay back and dream. And this was a dreamy morning. The sun hadn't yet burned away all the morning mist. It lazily rose from the water in golden whisps of gossamer. Birds were singing. Insects were humming. Cricket felt she truly hadn't a care in the world.
"Lavinia Christine Pruitt!!" Just then her name bellowed across the meadow, through the stand of trees and up under her lacy boughed shelter. "You get in this house RIGHT NOW!!" Kissie's bossing had begun.
"School, Missy. Did you forget school?" Kissie thought she was mom, but she wasn't. She tried to act like she was. But she wasn't.
"NOW!!!"
"I'm coming!!" Cricket huffed back, jumping down from her comfy perch. She ran home, but not nearly as quickly as she had run here earlier.
School. She had mixed feelings about it altogether. She liked learning well enough, but it was just so very inconvenient. Always the middle of the day when there was so much to explore and see. And a terrible long way to walk to and from. Also there was the matter of the boys. Boys were generally as inconvenient as going to school itself. They were a great nuisance overall. Her curiosity to learn just didn't outweigh the bother of it all.
"NOW!!!" Kissie might not be mom, but she sure could holler like her...
