Ally | Marjorie Riches

As I navigated my way to the shortest line that I could find at Wal Mart, I ended up in the self checkout behind two elderly people, a little girl, and a baby. The little girl stared at me for a minute, her big blue eyes opened wide, curious. The intensity of her stare broke me, and I smiled at her. I gave her my biggest, goofiest smile and she smiled back. Her smile was cute, and the way she wrinkled her nose when she smiled seemed mysterious to me. While we smiled back and forth, the baby in the cart in front of her started to cry. She whinced for a moment and it was abvious that this was her baby sister and that she was used to that cry. She was used to the whining of the little girl, yet the look in her eyes showed that she hated it. It showed that she had forgotten about the time when she was a baby and could only communicate through whimpering cries. The little girl looked up at me suddenly, as if remembering that I was still standing there, staring at her, in awe of how cute her little face was. "Hi" she said to me in a high, sweet voice, "What's your name?" I barely had time to answer when she cut in, "Mine's Ally." She emphasized her name as though it should be the most important thing that I would hear in that day, maybe in the entire week. Ally was a special name. She was Ally and she was special. She was important. "How old are you Ally?" I asked and I saw the elderly woman who had been sliding groceries across the scanner look at me inquisitively. I wanted to tell her, "Listen lady, I'm not a child molester, I'm just talking to the little girl because she talked to me." It's funny how the world today has made everyone so nervous. I don't think that I'm an edgy looking person, but you can't be too careful about who you trust. The elderly woman must have sized me up and decided that I was ok because she looked away, seeming to give me approval to talk to the little girl. "I'm two" Ally chimed in. Two year olds are fun, I reminded myself. I have always enjoyed playing with two year olds, they are so excited about life, so ready for anything that comes your way. So inquisitive about all of the little things going on in the world. I decided to ask Ally if she was having fun and she looked at me like I was insane. "No." She replied, completely blowing my question out of the water. I thought two year olds always had fun shopping. I laughed to myself as the elderly man started pushing the cart with little Ally in it away from the checkout counter. She waved to me as she left and I was left with my own thoughts. I hoped that wherever Ally went next that she would be have some fun. I wanted to run after her and tell her, you are only two once, enjoy it while it lasts, be a kid while you can, cry for everything that you want while you still can. Just enjoy life while you are young...childhood runs away so quickly.