They call her Wonder. She sneaks around the bushes ready to pounce on her friend. "Boo!" Giggles erupt.
She stands in a grassy field bent, very, very still. "Watching babies!" she says, and so she is. Hundreds of tiny praying mantises hatched. Crawling about her in the tall grass, she stares, lips pressed firmly then part and spread widely. "Look!"
Wonder hangs upside down from a tree branch and lets the blood pulse into her head; her mouth opens and she laughs.
Wonder licks her ice cream cone from the top. Then she bites a hole and sucks from the bottom. The cone softens as the ice cream melts. It runs and drips. Wonder's fingers turn sticky. She wipes them on her jeans and grins.
Wonder picks strawberries and stuffs them in her pockets. Her doll needs a red dress and so she needs some "dye." Wonder gathers bouquets of daisies and dandelions. She adorns adobe miniatures with yellow and white petals.
Wonder hangs bed sheets from a clothes line and pretends she's a brave princess banished from her castle. A wreath of morning glories trails down her shoulders.
Wonder flies down a steep hill upon her two-wheeled bicycle. Erect she spreads her arms like kite wings while the wind whips against her poised torso, legs pumping, feet swishing round and round.
Wonder falls over, hard. She rolls. She looks up at the sky. She sees clouds and feels her pain. Her tears fall. Her face shines wet in the afternoon sunlight.
And for a moment, she wonders if she can stand. The skin on her leg burns. Then Grace kneels over her gently, brushes her forehead and looks into Wonder's eyes. Grace sees something new there. She sees mingled with pain, fear.
"Your soul shall grow old and brittle, Wonder, wrinkled like the face of that old tree-beard if you lay there too long. Come now, you are not hurt too badly; here's my hand," and Grace pulls up Wonder. She embraces Wonder as she lets her young friend rest upon her wise breast. Wonder feels Grace's heart beating. She turns her face upward. Her tears leave tracks of smeared dirt drying upon her tanned cheeks. Wonder smiles. Grace smiles.
They walk home together, pushing the broken bicycle. And passing on their way, Grace holds out her hand to a wrinkled man fallen near the path. There's a lady at his side bent with sorrow.
Wonder looks at her friend. And Grace nods.
"Wonder, help her stand again."
