Nothing Ever Happens Here

(One for the littles)

“Nothing ever happens here!” Ali and her twin brother Alex complained in unison.

They came in and flopped down on the floor next to their mother’s rocking chair in the living room and gave a loud sigh.

It was the second week of summer break, and they were already bored with devices, bicycles, and the small swimming pool in their back yard.

Their mother looked up from her magazine.

“Did you see the lights on the fire truck and police cars that just drove by our house?”

“No!” yelled the two children as they jumped up from the floor and leapt up onto the couch and peered out the large window in the living room.

There was nothing there. They turned back to look at their mother in disbelief.

“How about that clown truck?” Mother asked.

The two children whipped back around but only caught the tail end of the brightly painted, polka dotted truck.

They didn’t have long to wait because next came a man on a motorcycle that had brightly colored streamers flowing behind him as he rode. He had one multi-colored streamer attached to the spike sticking out on the top of his helmet, and it was waving happily in the breeze as he rode by the window.

Next came a group of silly-looking clowns with brightly painted faces, who were pulling wagons that had dogs sitting in them. They all waved at the two children before cartwheeling and doing flips down the street.

“Where do you suppose everyone is going?” they turned and asked Mother.

“I don’t know but it must be some place interesting,” she replied, “because there goes a giant mouse on a skateboard!”

Ali and Alex laughed as the life-sized skateboarding mouse zipped by and then paused to do figure eights on the street in front of their house. It waved at the two of them before continuing its journey.

Next came a slow-moving camel, his rider talking on a cell phone as they strolled into view. The man riding the camel spotted the children and waved, as did the monkey who was riding on his shoulder.

“It’s a parade!” Alex said excitedly.

“Maybe it’s a circus!” Ali exclaimed.

“Maybe it’s a carnival! Can we go, Mother, please?” they begged.

“Let’s follow them and see where they are going,” she smiled as she stood up. “Get ready!”

Ali and Alex jumped up to get their shoes on and then all three of them fell in step behind a family of elephants who were being led by a beautiful, red-headed woman in a shiny silver-sequined dress. They could see that she was following three tall men in fancy black and white suits, high up on stilts who were tossing handfuls of candy to the other kids how had come out to the sidewalks to see the spectacle.

As they made their way down the street and waved at the people, Ali skipped and grinned happily, “Something always happens here!”