Playing Hooky

I missed the bus today :[

Ohh who am I kidding? I'm glad. NO SCHOOL!
Inspiration finds me at strange times. & I came up with this:


The front door slammed & the girl with the fuzzy brown slippers stepped off onto the porch. She threw her arm up over her eyes. It was bright out for being only 8 in the morning. She trod over to the newspaper laying on the ground & gave it a good shake to be sure there were no spiders & looked up uneasily at old blue garage doors; They were covered in spider webs. She continued around to the back yard where she could see the water spraying from the hose, although she couldn’t see Gramma because of all the growing plants. The big apricot tree had become big & covered with green leaves since she’d last saw it. Some of the branches were supported by pieces of wood for when the branches became too heavy to support the weight of the coming apricots. Other than the apricot tree there were many other different plants in the yard. All growing & coming to life in the early morning sun. There were mostly bushes & many of them had flowers; Purples & yellows & pinks. The girl had forgotten how beautiful the backyard could actually be in the morning like this & it forced a smile across her dry lips, which she licked carefully. She paused for a minute at the old green gate that seemed to have been there forever. To her right was the big chimney. She chuckled at the memory of her climbing up & being so proud even when her mother told her she had better get down before she got a spanking. The cow bell that hung on the gate clunked & jingled loyally as it had for many years & the gate scraped the ground as it opened. Presently she was snapping the rubber band around the newspaper anxiously. She trekked across the bark which stubbornly stuck to the bottom of her slippers.
“Oh hi Cassy girl!” Gramma smiled, obviously surprised that she had come out.
“Hi Gramma.” She mumbled but also smiled.
She ducked past the apricot tree but was now blocked by the apple tree which had grown enormous & blocked the old path next to the rusting tractor. She contemplated stepping over the branches but decided otherwise & stepped around the other side slinking under the branches & over the other small bushes that were scattered about. Gramma was smiling as she watered; she was very proud of her garden. The week before Gramma had told the family that the garden would be in the city’s garden tour & she had been working on it tirelessly ever since.
“Do you know where Benny is?” Cassy asked.
“No I haven’t seen him this morning.” Gramma replied thoughtfully. “Hmph. Probably at the county store I suppose.”
“Mmm…”
“Will you wash my car today? It really needs a good washing.”
“Yeah, I’ll do it later though, when it gets hot.”
“You’re not supposed to do it when it’s too hot…but that’s fine just as long as it gets done.”
“Will you take me-“
“No. It’s my day off. I’m resting today.”
“Okay.”
Cassy stumbled back toward the house almost tripping over a mound of bark. Remembering her coffee waiting in the kitchen she cheered up a little bit. Benny was supposed to come by & keep her company since she missed the school bus & her mother had to go the opposite way to work.
“I’ll call your school & tell them. Please try to do something productive around the house today, okay?” Kelly had sighed earlier that day as she dropped Cassy off back at home.
She would do something; she’d wash Gramma’s car & make her mother’s bed & maybe do laundry if she felt like it. She walked inside & set the newspaper on the couch by the TV for Gramma to get when she came in. She walked over to get coffee. She loved coffee & recently hadn’t had it very often because it gave her stomach aches if she drank it before school. Josie the small Siamese walked by slowly & rubbed against Cassy’s leg then abruptly sat down & licked her own leg. Josie was small for an adult cat although she wasn’t very old. Kelly believed that she was the runt of the litter since when they found her she was abandoned & very tiny.
Cassy found a scrap of paper, scrunched it up & threw it down the hall. Josie looked up, stared intently & then shot after it to retrieve it. When she brought it back, however, Cassy had already left the room so she dropped the paper & plopped down to lay in the rays of sun that cast on the floor from the kitchen window, closing her eyes sleepily. Cassy sat down in the parlor room & looked up at the cowboy painting. She sipped her coffee happily & lay back against the pillows on the couch. They weren’t soft but they were comfortable & she closed her eyes & listened to the music her grandma had playing. It was piano music. She had once wanted to learn to play the piano, along with other instruments. She remembered playing the flute at her old middle school. She now longed to learn how to play the violin. It seemed that it would suit her better than piano or the flute. She liked the sound that came from string instruments like the violin, the cello & the guitar. Benny plays the guitar, she thought & smiled. He often came to serenade her with the sweet sound of his acoustic. He would lean over & his cowboy hat would cover his face as he played. Sometimes he would sing, too. She hoped he’d bring his guitar today so she could listen a little before they went riding. She listened to the music until she dozed off dreaming of sweet piano music & cowboys.