Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 18**

***Vanessa***

**It was this park. This was the place I had my fondest childhood memories.**

It changed quite a bit though. There were now new items and structures like the spring ride, geodome climbers, tether ball, viper swings, and a wooden outdoor playground that was built around an old tree. The old swing set and seesaw seemed to be changed to a new one. It was probably because it was risky to keep them even though they were getting old and rusty, especially the seesaw since it was already rusty back in my younger days, their replacements were surprisingly refreshing since they were made out of carved wood. What only remained unchanged was the sandbox, the slide, and the merry-go-round. The trees surrounding it grew a lot bigger and their branches became more extended, but they seemed to be regularly trimmed down. There were also new kinds of flowers and shrubs planted everywhere.

It was an earthly playscape, a site that closed the border of nature and modernity.

I heard the mayor's wife cherished this place since this was the place where they first met and fell in love, that was why he constantly placed close attention to it when it came to renovating it, making sure that even though there were new things added here and there, its essence was still the same as before.

Ah, looking at this place makes me remember things like it was just yesterday. I raised my head up to look at the sky and closed my eyes when the slight slush of cool early morning breeze brushed past me, pushing my hair strands on my shoulders backward and making it sway slightly in the air. I felt revived, and it was amazing. I opened my eyes again and looked at the structures.

That slide. It was a structure made of sturdy wooden boards on the bottom and a wooden playhouse attached on top of it, like a second floor. The house had a size that about 5 children could fit in, it had a long slide, a climber, and a ladder. We had arguments if it was really a slide or just generally a playhouse, but I prefer to label it as a slide since the thing was pretty long. Once I had taken my first round of sliding down, I would go back up and slide down repeatedly like I was addicted to it. My speed would accelerate with every round I slid down. I'd also sometimes bring a blanket whenever I came to play, so I could place it in the house to take some nappies with Angie and Angel and my other playmates. My eyes averted to the merry-go-round. It was a fun ride, but it was my worst childhood nightmare. Sure it had been a dreamy, fun, and glee-crammed fete if it was pushed moderately. However, it would become the worst ride since some boys liked it fast and thrust it around, especially if it was Victorino since he liked it turning around so fast. Good thing, there were the twins who would offer me their hand and never let me go until the unstoppable whirl ended. We'd also end up nauseous and dizzy and too weak to stand up, some kids would end up puking which would cause their moms to panic. It'd take us a few minutes to recover and go back to playing. That was why whenever Valeria and Victorino or any of those boys who liked pushing it speedily were around, I'd tend to avoid playing in the merry-go-round. But there were always times I was unfortunate and got caught with them.

But the merry-go-around was one an instigator why I met a couple of friends who I would probably speak to, let alone see again given that the twins were around 4 years older than me and were frequently busy with school, so they weren't around playing with me most of the time and whenever it was merry-go-hell time, the other kids got my back and I got theirs too.

One of them was Aurora, who only spoke Spanish. I previously thought I could confidently speak Spanish with her just because I watched Dora. I used to do that to Valeria and Victorino as well, but I only got laughed at, which I deserved. Despite the language barrier, she and I had understood each other and enjoyably played games without any conflict, on my end that was.

Another was a boy, whose name I couldn't remember. He rarely went outside since he was bullied in their previous town and got afraid of interacting with other kids other than his siblings. Thankfully, most of us were friendly and invited him to play with us a lot so he gradually learned to open up with us and started playing frequently. I remembered him quite a lot since I loved his mom who occasionally gave us popsicles, her way of thanking us for taking out her kid, probably. I shook my head and brushed my eyes on the sandbox, my favorite of them all. I loved playing with the sand and making sandcastles with my castle-shaped sand bucket.

There was a group of high school students who would occasionally come to the playground after school and make different structures with us other than sandcastles, one of them was an aspiring architect. He made complex building structures like the Twin Towers and Taj Mahal. They stopped visiting after they graduated, the last news I heard about them was pretty much heartwarming, they got their respective jobs and the architect-aspiring student became an Architectural Manager. Good for them.

A faint giggle tickled my stomach when I recollected that someone proposed to me while we were playing in the sand. I didn't fully understand what marriage was back then, only knowing it as being a concept of binding two people together for a long time with an oath, and when he asked me to promise him marriage when we grew up, I wholeheartedly accepted it since I wanted to be by his side for a long time because I had this little childish crush on him. Of all the boys I had played with, he was the one who always stuck with me.

I ran my hands through my hair, shaking my head. A sigh escaped from my lips. I was being reminded of him again. I then shook my head and tapped on the bench's arm before going back to jogging, trying to empty my thoughts again since a certain someone from my past was attempting to enter my mind. I didn't want to be reminded of his name, it would lead me to remember his entirety. I didn't want to hark back with the crumbling, unspoken sorrow that I badly desired to be just wishful thinking after all the recent happenings. I was trying to avoid that sorrow. But it seemed my sins were too heavy for the judgment scale to carry that it haunted me with such, as a form of punishment.

Half an hour passed since I did the exercise, and I decided to take a cool down in the open meadow. The sun was completely out that it was starting to feel warm and prickly, the soft rays of the sunlight struck all things bright and beautiful, the fog had gone like it was never there in the first place, and the people were starting to populate the park. Several kids were invading the playground as well. I popped my cheek on my final stretch and walked in the direction heading to a nearby store not far from here unless it was closed down.

Since it was fully morning, and I was pretty sure that mom was close to waking up so I hurriedly picked out the things I needed to buy and threw them in the cart. I only needed the stuff good for breakfast. I pulled out a box of pancake mix, two loaves of bread, honey, whipped cream, bacon, a carton of eggs, some fresh milk, and Gerber for Zach. I was in such a hurry that I was already running toward the counter as soon as I finished checking and double-checking if I got everything. I wanted mom to wake up with breakfast already made.

I found myself closer to the queue of customers lining the counter, and I ran faster than the speed of light. Someone might come and steal the latest spot!

"Oh!" I gasped in surprise when my cart crashed with someone else's. Someone came first on the spot before I could. I looked at the cart for a good second before brushing my gaze up, only to meet a guy's familiar face.

"Oh, it's you," his chummy voice said, hinting with a mix of amusement. He held these pair of bright brown eyes and smiling lips that brewed mischief. I remained to stare at his face, all speechless until it ticked in me why I found him familiar. It was the guy who was with the dog days earlier!

"It's you!" I exclaimed, pointing an index finger at him, my entire system assailed by shock.

"Yup, it's me," he pointed at himself as well and laughed. "Please tell me you haven't hit any animals lately," he jokingly added which made me pout for a bit, which was weird since I wasn't the type to chummy with strangers. Maybe because he had this amicable, reliable big brother-like aura.

"I told you, I was a bit occupied at that time," I replied, trying to act like I was completely unfazed. "It won't happen again."

"Right, right. Calm down." A peal of laughter escaped from his lips again. "Anyways, you should go first," he then said, tilting his head to the queue that just started to move.

"No, it's okay. You got in the spot first," I refused, raising a hand.

"I'm good," he retorted, the same mischievous smile plastered on his lips, then added: "And it looks like you're in a hurry anyway." He looked at me from head to toe, then to my cart. That was when I realized that I was helplessly sweating. It was probably because I was rushing. Gosh, how embarrassing!

"Don't mind if I do then," I replied, and released a small smile. I walked past him and set myself behind the elderly person who had only a carton of orange juice in their cart.

"So, you're new here?" he asked behind me, starting a conversation. "It's my first time seeing you around."

I turned to face him for a retort with a shrug. "I really can't say that. I mean, we used to live here, then we moved back."

"I see." He nodded continuously while looking in the opposite direction, and that was when I noticed that he had a tattoo on the right side of his face extending to his scalp, a wonderfully tatted laurel wreath. It was quite noticeable as his hair was in a messy French crop. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the way it was inked on his skin and how it coalesced in the fade. It looked so... mesmerizing. "Just moved here six months ago. So, technically, I'm the new one between you and me. It's a good place," he complimented then faced me, which pulled me off my mindless reverie.

"You're right. It is." I managed to say with a nod. "Neighbors a great."

"You're right. They are lovely," he said and his smile grew wider. "Got any good places to go around here? I hadn't done a full tour around town even though I've been here for six months."

"Wow, you sound like a hermit."

"I guess you can say that. Humor me?"

We began to talk about random things starting with the nice places around town that I knew, down to the annual events around town like the fair, and Valentine's special in the carnival. The man had quite the jolly personality and made me laugh a few times after a few side comments. It was like time slowed down, and seconds seemed to have become hours and everything around me was invisible.

"Hey, lovebirds. Stop holding the line!" a voice behind him suddenly said, breaking our conversation. I automatically looked behind me, the cash register was now free and the cashier was looking at us with disbelief on his face. Mortified, I hurriedly ran to the counter and placed all the items.

"See you when I see you again," he bid as I paid what was needed to be paid, and received the paper bag filled with my goods. I looked at him with a smile.

"Yeah." I nodded, "See you when I see you," I replied, even though it'd probably be the last time we'd meet again.

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my works, future works, and endless frustrations on Twitter: https://twitter.org/RiosMorpheus**