Penelope Spark

Little Johnny was a tall lanky boy for an eight year old. He had a freckled face, two front buck teeth that one day his face would round out and grow into, but after hearing the kids at school laugh – pointing to his bucky beaver teeth – their laughter would cure him from laughing too long or smiling too widely. He didn’t realize how that experience had affected him until a friend – who went to take his picture – asked him why he never smiled. He remembered. And, just to think a little thing like a questioned, missing smile would bring a cascade of memories back to him of his boyhood. Huh. 

He remembered too when he’d walk along a culvert straddling both sides of the gulley – left and right foot. He’d walk and as the water pooled beneath him, he spied out a festive gathering of crawdaddies. As he walked, he thought how God looked down to see him, and not being God, he realized his limitations. Even though he was tall for his age, and could stretch his legs out a fair distance, there came that point he had to choose to cross over the gulley one side or the other – left or right. Then, he’d have to successfully make the jump without falling in. So, Johnny went on and tried to straddle the gulley as long as he could, but the moment inevitably came when he had to decide, go left or go right?  He hated making that choice. It wasn’t as if he was choosing between good and evil. If he went left, he would follow the path that took him home. If he went right, that path took him to his grandmother’s house. Because he loved them both, he naturally hated the decision… a decision he wouldn’t have hated if he hadn’t thought about having to make it, but he went and did it – he thought about it. He did, and now he had to choose. He couldn’t keep straddling, the gulley was getting wide, and he’d fall in. If that happened, he would’ve heard it from his mother and grandmother. No way he was going to show up all wet in his school clothes. Then again, he wasn’t about to turn around and straddle walking back. What good would that do? Going back wouldn’t take him home or to his grandmothers.