My New Cape
By: Katarina Allen
Assignment #2: Flash Fiction
I was eight at the time, wondering what everyone was doing over at my house. Especially with all the adults piling in from out of their cars parked outside; some even on our lawn, yet none of them brought any kids for me to play with. My mom stood by the doorway greeting everyone. I had originally been standing next to her waiting for children to enter, but when no kids showed up I just got so bored that I had to move and find something else to keep me occupied. I wandered through the house looking for my toys, which were usually splayed everywhere, but mom had picked up all of them that morning and put them away.
I reached the kitchen full of food that still hadn’t been placed out for people to eat. Then I saw a huge colorful triangle on the kitchen table all by itself, nothing near it to disturb its loneliness. To me this meant it could definitely have some playing potential. I had seen mom carrying it earlier, clutched so close to her chest like I do sometimes with my baby dolls, so I snatched the triangle up and made my way sneakily to the back door. I made sure to shut the sliding glass door softly so no one could hear me go into the backyard by myself; because I definitely wasn’t allowed to that. I unraveled the cloth and it was a lot bigger than it looked when folded into that triangle. It was definitely longer than I was, so I decided to make it into a cape; my cape. I pulled the two ends together around my neck and raced around our yard pretending I could fly and save the world; watching the tail of my cape flap wildly behind me as I flew.
My cat, Zena, joined in by clawing the ends of my cape while it dragged along the grass tips. I watched Zena play a bit more then I placed her onto my cape and gave her a little ride. She didn’t seem to like this very much because her claws dug into my cape tearing puncture wounds in the colorful cloth; Zena looked terrified when I tried to lift her into the air, so I stopped and let her free. After exhausting myself with flying tricks and giving rides, I took my cape to my small sandbox in the corner of the backyard and decided I would build a castle. Usually when I play in the sandbox I get sand everywhere, but this time since I had my new cape I could sit on it and stay sand-free.
“Tina! What are you doing?” I was just about to pour out my two-story tower for my castle when grandmother screamed at me from the sliding glass door. My sand tower was ruined now. I was trying to figure out why she was so mad at me, I mean sure I ate a couple handfuls of sand, but that wasn’t unusual and I don’t think she saw me do it anyways. More people piled out all wearing the same color; black. When I saw my mom and her expression to my playing in the sand, I knew something was definitely wrong.
Grandma stomped over to me in her black swishy dress that reached all the way to her ankles and snatched away my pretty cape, castle and all. The sand went flying everywhere, even under my black dress. Everyone followed my grandmother inside whispering to her and rubbing her hunched back as she pressed her face into my cape. I wanted to cry out for her to bring back my cape, but my mom leaned down next to me and took my hands, already understanding why the tears were flowing down my face.
“That wasn’t yours sweetheart. It belongs to… Belonged to your Dad.” She sat down on the edge of the sandbox next to me and picked me up and placed me on her lap, even when the sand started to poor out from under me and onto her she still held me tight.
“But it was my pretty cape.” My mother smiled at this, resting her chin on my head, rubbing it in little circles over my blonde curls and black bows. “We can get you a new cape sweetie.” This made me bounce up and down on her lap, but the more I bounced the more I made her pointy chin hit my head.
“Just like that one okay? With the red, white, blue and white stars?” I bounced more against her ignoring the pain of her chin jabbing into my skull. For some reason I needed her to understand this one request more than anything else. The most important request I will ever ask of her for the rest of my life.
She sighed and kissed my head and placed me on the grass, brushing off her black knee length dress of all the sand that had pooled there and said, “Yes, exactly the same, especially with the white stars.”
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