Empty Swing

Our writing prompt for today (the picture):

I watched as my brothers played in the dirt with their dump trucks and backhoes. There was barely an inch on either one of them that wasn’t covered in dust. Josiah had a stick poking out of his curly locks that wiggled every time he vroom-ed his truck down their homemade road.

I giggled. My brothers were always getting into things that would make mother sigh and throw them in the tub.

Jumping off the swing I had been sitting on, I climbed the steps to the back porch and went to find my mother.

“Momma, the boys are filthy again,” I said when I found her in the kitchen making dinner.

“I should go check on those boys.”

“What dear?” Daddy said from the living room where he was watching the evening news.

My mother rinsed her hands and dried them on the towel hanging from the oven door. “Nothing,” she told Daddy, then headed outside.

I followed her out.

“Josiah! Markus!” Momma shouted as soon as she saw the state the boys were in. “I told you we were going to have dinner soon and to not get dirty.”

The boys exchanged glances. They tried to keep their faces serious enough to appease Momma, but they weren’t very good at it.

“Inside! Now. You get cleaned up quick or you won’t get dinner.”

Josiah and Markus left their trucks and ran past Momma to the back door. Markus pretended his hands were airplanes. “Whoosh-vroooooom!” Markus yelled as he ran.

Momma shook her head, but couldn’t keep a smile off her lips.  “Little scoundrels,” she said.

Before she turned to go back inside, Momma turned to me, a frown on her lips again.  I wanted to take her hand and walk inside with her, but I couldn’t. I didn’t mean to, but I caused a lot of frowns these days.

“Sorry, Momma,” I told her.

“I love you, Cara,” Momma replied, then hurried back inside.

“I love you, too.”

I watched her close the door.

“Are you ready?” A voice beside me said.

I looked up to see Great-Grandma. It was usually her who came and got me. We had become good friends since I’d arrived, and she knew I liked visiting my family. I was glad I was here on the other side, but it was hard for Momma.

Grandma saw my frown and lifted my chin with her finger.

“It’ll get better,” she told me. “It won’t be but a moment before you all will be together again.”

Thanks for reading! You can find Leah's here, and Alison's here. They are so very touching. Go. Read. Enjoy. :)