Waltz of Her Life

Hayley would shift back and forth, looking down, stepping over both her small feet, and say "That green kind."

"It has a name, you know. Pistachio. Say it. Pistachio."

"Pit-asho."

To keep the upholstery of the Jeep clean, they always ate their ice cream at the tiny table and chairs inside the bright parlor. "So did you have fun?"

Hayley sat at the edge of her chair, her feet dangling over. She supported herself with one hand against the table while the other hand held her ice cream cone. Splotches of pastel green melted ice cream dripped onto her lips and chin as she happily lapped. She nodded, her head bobbing with the zeal of her youth. Linda felt glad that she'd placed napkins over the front of her blouse and her jumper.

"What did you do?"

"We sang a song. The teacher read a story about a giant."

"Did you make any new friends?" Linda threw caution to the winds and ordered a double scoop of her favorite, Jamocha Almond Fudge.

She nodded her head again, like a little puppy. "Ellie."

"That's nice. What else did you do?"

"We took a nap. And we drew pictures."

"How is the teacher?"

"She's nice. She looks like grandma."

Later, when they arrived home, Linda cleaned Hayley's face more thoroughly and retrieved her camera. Just as she predicted, Inge was still there. "Could you take pictures of us out by the garden?"

"Aw, mom!" Hayley whined. "You always want to take pictures."

"Just indulge me, will you?" she said, as she guided her out the back door. As much as she complained, the girl always did smile for a picture. Inge patiently took several shots of them standing beside the rosebushes and the tomato garden. Linda knew she would look fat in the pictures, but she did not care.

For the rest of the afternoon, they waited for Stephen to return. Normally Linda let Hayley play with her dolls and her craft toys in her room, but today she wanted to sit with her, hopefully to get her to tell her more about the first day of kindergarten. Unfortunately, the only way she could get her to sit still was to put on a Disney video, such as The Little Mermaid.While they watched Ariel and the dancing crabs and sunfish, Hayley leaned her small head against her mother's chest.

She didn't seem to be watching the movie too closely. Instead, she started whispering "Hello" over and over again.