Whispers From The Past

My inexperience with kids showed immediately when I asked her why she was looking out the window. ‘What a dumb question?’ I thought. ‘There’s nothing like rubbing salt into the wound.’

Before she answered, she looked at me with her big brown eyes and asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m one of your grandpa’s friends, except I’m reconsidering our friendship,” I said the last part softer. “My name is Gabe.”

She turned around and looked at Tom. Tom nodded to her. Seeing her profile I could tell that she must have been around three to four years old. Her face was round with her dark brown hair curling around her jaw line. She faced me and said in a sweet, soft voice that nearly broke my heart, “My daddy went somewhere, but he’s coming back.” I didn’t know what to say, so I offered her a chocolate by just placing my hand out.

She took one and whispered, “You have one too, they’re good. Watch out though, there’s a peanut inside.”

‘Gee, I wonder who told her that?’ I thought grinning, as I looked at Tom. I popped it into my mouth. “Your grandpa told me your name was Bridget,” I said trying to be more careful with my words. “That’s a beautiful name. He also told me that you like to fish. Is that true?”

Her face lit up with her eyebrows rising, “Yes, I do. Once I was with my daddy and he caught a bass with a big mouth,” she said with excitement while opening her mouth as far as it could go. “Daddy said we could eat it, but I told him no. So we throwed him back to his family.”

“That’s a nice thing to do Bridget,” I said adoring her face as she talked of her special memory. “Bridget, how would you like to go fishing with me?”

“Do you have a boat?” she asked.

“Well, no but we could fish from the shore.”

“Are there fish ashore?” she asked doubtingly.

“What I mean is… if we sat on the grass we could throw our lines into the water. We don’t need a boat.”

“I don’t know,” she said with a frown, “I think you need a boat if you wanna catch fish.”

“Let’s try it anyway. You want to?”

“I’ll have to ask Grandpa when he’s not sleeping. Daddy said he sleeps more than a bear hivernaging.” She leaned toward me and said, “That means a lot.”

“Oh, I see,” I said while nodding my head. “You go ask him. I’ll stay here.”

“Okay,” she said while climbing down from the stuffed chair. She walked over to Tom and started to carry on a conversation. She looked over her shoulder and point at me, like Tom wouldn’t know who she was talking about. Tom was saying something back to her as she shrugged her shoulders and then finally nodded her head in agreement of whatever he said.

She slowly walked back and scaled the chair to resume her original spot. Spinning around she faced me. “Grandpa said you could take me, but you have to cough up five bucks.”

“Is that what he said?” I asked snickering.