The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
Camouflage
It’s a chilly morning. All the kids waiting on school buses are wearing coats, but many are also wearing shorts. By afternoon it will be warm, yet there are shivers right after breakfast. For blocks you can see the bundles–a parent and their child, a kiddo and a backpack, a bus slow and yellow.
A father waits with his elementary-aged son. Dad rocks from his heels to his toes. The boy zips up his leaf-mottled camouflage jacket and wants to show off its qualities. He puts the hood over his head and dashes near some shrubs. The boy freezes, one arm up and the other down like someone paused a sprinter mid-step. The boy stands still, but he’s also shaking in restrained giggles. The father pretends his son can’t be seen, leaning this way, then leaning the other, putting his hand above his eyes and calling out, “The bus is coming! Where are you?”
The boy laughs aloud and emerges from the foliage. His father moves in slap-stick exaggeration to demonstrate his surprise. They hug hard when reunited, then the boy’s arrives. As bus rolls away with his son onboard the father shakes his head. He is still smirking as he sets off for home. He takes a red leaf from one of the nearby bushes, and he tears at as while he goes.
–Colorado
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
A perfect day 🙂
Thanks for the comment, Andy!
It was worth being up early in the morning to catch the scene. 🙂
Paige
Cheers to that! ^.^/