The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
Giddy Arrivals
The young girls break free from the distracted travelers entering the main terminal. They spot their father straightaway, call “Daddy, daddy!” and rush to him by cutting around various legs and carry-ons. Their mother follows with their little brother in a stroller. After fawning over his girls, the father reaches to embrace his not-yet-toddling son. The girls giggle and skip. They hold hands and hop. Even at Daddy’s side, they keep calling his name, thrilled to be together again.
Only moments before, this father was unremarkable. With the multitude he stood, scanned for familiar faces among passengers, paced when the objects of their search failed to appear. This man looked like everyone else to everyone else in the arrivals area. But not to the curly-haired girl in purple clogs with a pink cupcake t-shirt, not to her slightly taller sister, not to the boy fidgeting in the stroller, not to their smiling mother. For this quartet, he is the one man who matters in this crowd of hundreds.
–Denver, Colorado.
My aunt Karen, my mother, and my Grandpa.
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
Aww, that’s lovely! I’ve got a warm fuzzy feeling after reading that! Well done! 😉
🙂 So glad that translated into the story. Thanks!
It was perfect! That he just looked like any other guy except to those kids and that mum – so sweet!
Love the imagery of the kids, “cutting around various legs and carry-ons.” I’m smiling just thinking about their exuberant maneuvers and the difference it makes when you matter to someone.
Thanks for the really lovely comment. Agreed! “Mattering” is a wonderful thing. 🙂
Well done. Very touching!
Thank you, Hugh! I appreciate you coming by to read my little snippets.
Loved this, our dads are so special…………..well I know mine is
Mine is as well. I must remember to call him this weekend. Maybe I should write to him too…
Enjoyed this one, really connected to it.
Thanks, Rosie! I was one of those hoppy, happy little greeted girls once! (Likely more than once.) 🙂
Somehow the like button doesn’t work – so I have to like your post via comment.
🙂 Happy to have you commenting! Thank you!