rays of sunlight // Antoine Griezmann

Chapter 2

There is a picture of me and Antoine, probably around the age of eight, nine, or ten, sitting together, both grinning widely, on the front steps of my house. Both of us are loosing a tooth or two. He's holding up a worm between two fingers, and his blond hair is a mess on top of his head. I'm holding up a muddy shovel, and my darker hair is bound up in the messiest, coming undone ponytail I have ever seen in my life. We're both wearing tank tops and shorts, and are covered in dirt, mud, cuts, and band-aids.

I haven't thought about my childhood with this little boy for years, but suddenly, all at once, it all seems to flood back to me.

Flashback, about 11 years ago, age 9

The sun is shining outside, and I can't wait to finish breakfast to run out there and meet Antoine. Yesterday, we planned for today to go to the ice cream truck, get some ice cream, and then go back to my yard and do the important business of digging up worms. But we have a good reason for digging up worms- our plan is to freak out our older sisters, Maud and Marie, by sticking the wonderful little creatures in their belongings, where they obviously should not belong.

It's going to be hilarious.

No one knows about our plan, naturally, because if anyone found out, we're both smart enough to know how soon they would put an end to the mischief. But that's just because, other than me and Antoine of course, no one around here knows how to have a little bit of fun sometimes.

I run up to Antoine's house, which is right next to mine, and knock on the door. I try not to burst out laughing when Maud opens the door.

"Why are you grinning like that?" the older, quite annoying (in my humble opinion) twelve-year-old girl asks me.

"Nothing," I say, not bothering to wipe the smile off my face. "Is Antoine around?"

"What do you think?" she says. I know I annoy her, because this isn't the first time me and Antoine have come up with the idea of tricking our sisters. Definitely not the first time. She then turns around and calls, "Antoine, your friend is here!"

"'Kay!" I here his voice call, until he runs to the door, wearing old jorts and a tank top. The jorts are the same color as his eyes, and his hair is the same color as the sun. "Hi, Belle," he says, smiling. "Let's go." He marches off onto the sidewalk, and I fall into step next to him.

"So ice cream first?"

"Yup," he nods. Antoine has always sort of been the leader, but that's okay. I've always just followed him, and had a good time with it. Especially lately, for some reason... I wish I had someone to talk about it with, but I get this weird knot feeling in my stomach whenever I'm around him lately, but it's an emotion like excitement, maybe, but I don't really understand it. It's been confusing me, because I've never felt it before, except recently, when I've been around him. Oh well. Whatever. It's probably just some weird kind of growing pain or something. Nothing to worry about, and probably nothing even important enough to think about anyway.

When we get to the ice cream truck, I order for the both of us, like I always do and always have. He, although he is about an hour older than me, is a much smaller kid, with a shorter, skinnier figure, and big innocent looking blue eyes, which makes him look a year or two younger than we really are. Me, on the other hand, am taller than him, with broader shoulders, a longer face, and dim looking blue eyes, that look like they've seen a lot more than I actually have. I look a year or two older than our age.

At least that's what my mother said to me when I asked her why I should order ice cream all the time instead of him. So I guess I'll trust her on that.

We walk home, eating our ice cream, the sunlight beaming on the whole world, lighting it up, making us forget that worry and sorrow even exists at all in this wonderful big world of ours. The sidewalk is hot on our bare feet, but we don't mind. We'd rather go barefoot and get used to the hot sidewalk than have to put on socks and sneakers whenever we want to get ice cream. Of course we don't tell our parents that we don't wear shoes.

Finally, we finish our ice cream, and go to my backyard, worm digging. As Antoine is very focused on gathering the worms, I start to get antsy, so I sneak behind the house to get the hose. I hear Antoine yell, "Belle, where'd you go?"

I sneak around the corner of the house, and I can see him standing up, wiping the dirt on his hands off on his shorts, looking around for me. I grin, then run out spraying him with the cold water of the hose, full blast.

He falls over onto the ground, laughing his head off, but somehow snatches the hose from me- he's stronger than he looks- and aims it at me instead.

We both end up laying in the grass, laughing our heads off like the stupid kids we are. I don't mind. Being stupid with Antoine is just about the best pastime ever.

We end up going scootering, soaking wet, with no shoes on, and laugh at each other when we slip and fall off the scooter onto the sidewalk. We are both fully aware of how dangerous and stupid this activity is, but we're even more aware of how fun it is, and no one gets seriously hurt in the end, so it's all good.

Then we go back to gather the worms, and agree that tomorrow, we'll keep working on the project, before we both go back to our houses at around 4:00 P.M., starving, all cut up, and extremely dirty.

Current Time

I remember how happy and carefree I was back then... The biggest problems in my life were if Antoine wouldn't be able to play today, or that his sister thought I was annoying...

I can't help smiling, but probably the saddest smile ever, just wishing that I could go back to those days of carefree, fun, and complete and udder stupidy.

I wish I could go back to the days when nothing mattered.