A Writer’s Playground?

 Two are better than one,

    because they have a good return for their labour:

If either of them falls down,

    one can help the other up.

Ecclesiastes 4:9,10

 

I watched the little girl, alone on the roundabout.

Round and round she went, pushed by her dad, circle after circle.

“Stop! I want to get off!”

The roundabout slowed, and the little girl climbed off.

I wondered where she would head next. 

The slide? 

The swings?

Instead, standing near the roundabout, she began to cry.

“Someone else with me!”

No one else seemed very keen, and I watched as the little girl crossed to the swings.

Not to ride on them, but to ask if anyone would go on the roundabout with her?

No, said the swing riders.

No, said the slide whizzers.

No, said the climbing frame mounters.

The little girl returned to the roundabout.

Seeing her dad still there, she burst into tears.

“No one will come on with me.”

He crouched down beside her, and she buried her face in his shoulder.

A slightly older girl approached:

“What’s the matter with her?”

Upon learning that the little girl wanted company on the roundabout, the older girl immediately said, “I’ll come”, ran off to get a friend, and the two of them got onto the roundabout.

Seeing that she wasn’t alone anymore, the little girl climbed on, too.

She chose a seat as close to the others as possible.

As her dad began to push the roundabout again, the little girl kept looking over at her companions.

Yes, they were still there, spinning around with her.

The little girl laughed.

The dizzying roundabout-journey was better when shared.