The barefoot boy, of about sever or eight, sat on the graveled ground in front of the playground slide.  He was laughing as he picked up handfuls of gravel and tossed it onto the slide.  A younger girl, probably his sister, who was also barefoot, sat beside him.  She was also tossing gravel onto the slide.

   He was slender with skinny arms and legs that stuck out of his light blue shorts and dark blue shirt like limbs on a tree.  His butch cut hair was brown with streaks of blond that created a golden halo around the top of his head.  His square jaw, small mouth and upturned nose were complimented by a dimpled chin and dimpled cheeks.  His tanned face made his sparkling blue eyes shine even brighter.  His eyes twinkled as he continued tossing more gravel onto the slide.

   An older boy appeared at the top of the slide.  “Don’t come down the slide,” Tyler said to the older boy.  “You’ll make my stones come off.”

   Tyler wrapped his arms and hands around the stones and pushed them into the lower, center part of the slide.  “You can slide down now,” Tyler said.  “But don’t mess up my stones.”

   After the older boy slid down the slide, Tyler started putting more gravel on the slide.  It appeared to me, that Tyler wanted to put enough gravel on the slide to make it reach the top.  A few minutes later, Tyler followed the older boy out onto the playground.

   “Wait for me, Tyler,” his sister said.  “I need to put my shoes on.”

   “Alright,” said Tyler.  “The gravel hurts my feet when I run.  I’ll put my shoes on too.”

   After his shoes were on, Tyler waited for his sister and together they ran after the older boy who was now, swinging ono a swing.  Within seconds, Tyler was back by the slide.  He kicked off his shoes and started throwing gravel onto the slide again.  Soon, his sister was back by his side.  Tyler must have been looking after the younger girl, as no adult appeared to be watching them.  My guess was, that they lived in a nearby house.

   Apparantly tired from tossing gravel onto the slide, Tyler got up and looked for the older boy.  He found him by a moving walkway.  The older boy was jumping up and down, causing the walkway to rock back and forth.  Tyler and his sister sat down on the walkway, while the older boy made it move in jerky back and forth motions.  I wondered if they might fall off, but the younger children kept laughing as the older boy continued to jump up and down on the walkway.  This went on for several minutes, and then Tyler, followed by his sister, ran to the merry-go-round.

   A teenage girl walked up and asked, “Would you like a push?”

   “Yeah,” said Tyler.  “Real fast.”

   His laughter could be heard throughout the park as he went round and round on the merry-go-round.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia