It's a Hot Bouncin', Skippin' Mornin'

We were sitting on a bench waiting for the frozen yogurt store to open when I noticed a big, green grasshopper jump next to us. I gently scooped it up in my palms, cupping my fingers around it as it tickled its way out through my fingers and gave me that special half thrilling half disgusted feeling I only get when I hold on to insects. Finding freedom again, I was surprised that the grasshopper didn't jump away, it just sat there gripping my finger, looking around smelling the air with its antennae. My boy and I had just enough time to look at it up close, noticing the yellow and green patterns on his long bendy chopstick legs, and it's big, black, bulbous eyes before it bounced off, disappearing into thin air.

The boy offered to wipe the beads on sweat rolling down the side of my face with his wet, sweaty hands and I noticed on his neck little cut hairs leftover from his haircut. I was stunned for a milli-moment that even after a week of baths, dips in the ocean, and laps in the pool, they were still there, stuck to his neck. The doors to the frozen yogurt store opened and we rushed up, the boy skipping alongside me and as I watched him, it occurred to me that only kids skip and that as we grow older it becomes weird to skip. I had a sudden image in my mind of a bold lettered announcement made in the Vancouver Sun newspaper declaring that this year, instead of the usual springtime 10km run, the paper would be sponsoring a 5km skip. I chuckled as I pictured teams of skippers-in-training, skipping around the city as the yogurt man looked at me inquisitively. 

After savoring our yogurt, we rode home along the canal  in the noon day sun, zig-zagging to stay in the shade of the twisted, jungle-like trees with roots growing out of their branches, and berries out of their trunks, over the bridge with one last effort, trailing behind us a spray of sweat, and finally home. We dodged the gangs of blood-thirsty mosquitoes wandering aimlessly in the darkness of the underground parking and took the elevator upstairs. We struggled to put on our bathing suits over our sweaty bodies, grabbed our green foam noodle and headed back down to the pool. I suspect that perhaps our bodies were so hot when we jumped in that we instantly turned the water into bath water, but even thought it wasn't as refreshing as I thought it would be, it was still the best place to be!