the Kite

Not three blocks from the man who has everything there lived a mother, single, and her daughter. Together they walked through life. Day in and day out, the routine was always the same. The girl woke up after her mother and,to save money, they showered together. She would eat a slice of bread. If she were lucky, today would be a day she had butter. Then she would gather her books and walk the fourteen blocks to school. As she went in one direction, the mother would walk in the other. Close by was the eight to four factory job with poor workers' compensation and even worse work ethic. There were several less outstanding gnetlemen who worked side by side with her.

It became habit that both of them would occasion the stray walk in the park. These were the times when the grasping hands of life's cares could not touch either. It was summer soon and the girl took up a job scrubbing bathrooms at a family owned restaurant. The quality of the place wasn't much better than anything else in the area. As the days grew longer, so too, the mother's shifts. The girl would spend several hours of her day alone in the tiny fourth floor apartment with one bedroom and what could only be thought of as half a kitchen.

Still, the mother made sure she could find times to go for those blessed walks in the park. These walks did a good job for both of them. During one such walk, the two paused to watch a truly magnificent scene. There, on the other side of the hill, were raised a myriad of many-colored kites. The girl's heart swelled with a simplistic joy at such a lovely sight. THe mother's heart sank a bit for her own daughter, who had never had the chance to take part in such a common childhood ritual.

Over the next few weeks, the mother made it her goal to find a kite for her daughter. It was on that Tuesday that she found some old shoes with good laces in a dumpster. She felt a bit awkward digging through the trash, but she knew her daughter would appreciate it. It wasn't until Friday that she held in her hand a discarded clothes line. 'Perhaps a second one will do' she thought. In a few quick weeks, she had managed to find a garbage bag, some shoelaces, two wooden dowels, and not just two clothes lines, but three.

She waited one evening while her daughter was cleaning off the table. She ran to her room and clutched the brown paperbag full of supplies to her chest. She couldn't explain why she was crying, but silent tears rolled down her face.
She waited another minute as she regained her composure.

She came out of her room and smiled. "Let's go fly a kite." The two worked hand in hand, as with any other project or obstacle that had ever come before them. And that weekend, the two of them went to the park and fly the most magnificent kite that was ever made. It didn't shine and shimmer like the others. It had no majestic tail trailing behind it. Instead, it was black with shoelaces holding the pieces of wood in place. Despite its formal lack of quality, the kite was better than all the rest. The little girl knew this and the mother, too, knew this. Their kite outlfew any kite that day and ever summer they come out when they can and fly that kite.