Short Story: Sarah Exposition
Short Story: Exposition
Sarah
“People can be mean.” My daddy once said. And I agree. “They can be racist, sexist, and disappointing! But don’t let them ever stop you! There will be lots of bumps on your road to adventure. But some times those bumps are telling you to slow down and sometimes they give you a flat tire. Don’t let them ever get in the way! And sometimes it’s good to just take another path!”
That was a very confusing metaphor when I was a child. And I would think and think all night and day about what it might mean. I could never find a reasonable answer. I didn’t want to ask me dad because I thought he expected me to understand it already! I didn’t know how amazing his words really were but now I understand. And I know his voice will fill my head with happiness and joy forever.
Everyday my father and I would throw the football in our backyard. His fingertips would brush against the laces on the ball. All of my knuckles would be jammed by the end of the day, but I got used to it. His old hands were dry and scratched. Years of hard work and determination were represented with all the lines on his fingers.
He still tells me stories of working in his shop. Always volunteering to help anyone who needed it. He inspired me as a child to be like him. He seemed to be perfect but then again he also told me no one could be perfect.
Our house in Arkansas could fit three people but my dad was honest with me, he told me his heart was broken too many times to love anyone but me. He told me I was the most amazing thing that happened to him. HE said I could change the world, I laughed.
I told him that I couldn’t do that, but we could. “I’ve been thinking.” I said with a dangerous look in my eye. “If we teamed up we’d do double, we’d change the world twice.”
He held his head back and laughed into the clouds then said, “You are the smartest girl I have ever met!” And he meant it too.
We went right to work. He got a scrapbook from the back of his closet. “To hold all of our memories!” He said. He wrote on the front cover with black sharpie;
OUR JOURNEY
That day I asked him where we would get started. And he said he had to teach me a lot before we did anything. So he took me into our gigantic backyard and said, “See this?” I nodded, “ This is what you call work.”
I scanned the yard and saw sticks, weeds, long grass, and bugs. I looked up at him and asked, “What kind of work?”
“Hard work.”
But what kind of work.”
“Hard work.”
“Okay, um, when do we get started?”
“Now.”
He led me to our tool shed at the back of the yard. And in that tool shed was a HUGE lawn mower! It was twice the size of me and could run me over in a split second. It was like a monster compared to me!
“Your gonna ride this thing until the whole yard is done!” He said with a smirk.
I wasn’t mad but I did want to know how this would make us change the world! But I climbed on top the mower and my dad told me the basics. We rode up and down the lawn five times! And it took us three hours!
At the end of the day he took my small hand and said, “You’re going to change the world with or without me but you have to start out small.”
So we did, we rode lawn mowers for years earning money that could get me to college. And I never did stop dreaming with my father at my side, he was with me every step of the way!