Orange Candy Story Time
Orange Party DayOne orange remained at the top of the tree. Linda noticed it as she and her children waved goodbye to her husband for the day. “Look.” She pointed to the fruit, perched atop the tree like a big, sunlit bird. “Daddy missed one.”Patrick looked, four-year-old excitement instantly inflated. “We should get that orange, Momma! For snack!” He began jumping and, as if magically attached, his little sister joined him. “Get the ladder! Hurry!” Linda decided there was no way she was going up a ladder.
“I think maybe Daddy wanted to leave it for the birds. Birds love fruit, and they hardly ever get to eat any of ours. And you know ours are the best in the valley.”
Patrick nodded. Brenda followed suit. “Birds don’t get good stuff like us, Bren,” Patrick told his sister. He looked up at Linda. “They can have it.” Linda checked on the two later in the morning. Brenda was playing, but Patrick sat, watching the top of the tree. “No birds, Momma.” He never took his eyes from the orange. “We should eat it for them.”
“We’ll have a different kind of orange.” Linda smiled. She hurried to the kitchen, retrieved a container, poured milk into two glasses and grabbed a tablecloth. “Snack!” She carried her loot outside, letting the screen door slam behind her. Linda spread the tablecloth on the porch, passed out glasses and opened the container. “Sorry, sweetie.” She lifted her surprise. The children squealed at the sight of Orange Slices Candy and Gummi Bears. Linda sat, placing four candies beside each child. “Let’s have a party.”
“What for, Momma?” Patrick asked, Brenda repeating his words, plopping down beside their mother. Without waiting, they grabbed the candies, stuffing their mouths full. “It’s an Orange Day Party,” Linda thought of the chores she’d planned to do before lunch that were undone, and smiled. “Sometimes you should just have a party. Today, is that day.”
Patrick looked up at the season’s last fruit. “Look! One of those nasty Grackle birds! Want me to shoo it away, Momma?“
Linda smiled in the warmth of the sunshine, the orange candy and her children’s presence. “Not this time, Pat. He can party, too.”
-by Debora Dyess
