ARRvol34 master reduced - Flipbook - Page 30
Once Upon a Wednesday
Vasilisa Rutsch
Inspired by Patti Santucci’s “Our Story”
“If there ever comes a day
when we can’t be together,
keep me in your heart,
I’ll stay there forever.”
- Winnie the Pooh
Your long, dark hair catches the breeze as you walk into Fairytale
Town with a baby stroller and a little girl on a Wednesday morning.
You think it certainly could be a Sunday, with so many mommies
holding their toddlers’ hands, crossing the parking lot full of minivans and Suburbans with “Baby on Board” signs or stick figure
family decals. It is a sunny autumn morning in the capital of California, where moms on homeschooling play dates wear babies in
Ergo slings and push trendy jogger-strollers, their kids munching on
organic snacks.
You wear black capris and stylish sandals. Your little girl and baby
daughter are dressed in cute, matching dandelion-colored dresses,
complete with lacy headbands. You look tired, detached, and you do
not look passers by in the eye; even so, people don’t guess that you
have a sad life story inside you, that you often worry that you remind others of a gloomy Eeyore. If they did, they may feel compelled
to sit with you on a park bench and process your story, forgetting to
pay attention to their own children. Your little girl, twirling in her
bright yellow Winnie the Pooh dress, with her blond hair shining
in the sun and bouncing with each pirouette, tugs at your sleeve,
pointing to the ducks swimming in the pond. You nod, forcing a
weak smile, then pull out a few pieces of stale bread from a bag.
Your little girl skips to the water and tears small pieces from a slice
of bread, throwing them to the ducks. The ducks quack in delight
and she chirps in response.
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You adjust the clip on your long brown hair, thinking that you
and your girls should be having one of Pooh’s favorite kind of days.
Those kind of ordinary days you tend to take for granted, but later
