Us Girls Stick Together

The girls begged to go to the park after dinner, something that has become somewhat of a summer routine. “How about a walk around the block?” I negotiated. They weren’t thrilled, but they agreed without much of a fight. Maybe they were a little tired from their first day of dance camp.

As we crossed the road, heading towards our usual longer neighborhood loop, a man on an orange bike caught my eye. I hadn’t seen him around before and there was something a bit unusual about the lazy loops he was making. I quickly forgot about the biker as we saw our neighbors approaching over the hill with their two dogs. “Where are you ladies headed?” they asked. We often cross paths in the evening. “You better hurry,” they said gesturing towards the dark clouds ahead.

“Oh right!” I said as we waved goodbye and continued on. That’s when I noticed the orange bike again, now looping behind us again. “Let’s take a shorter walk tonight,” I said to the girls.

A few minutes later, we stopped to observe a family of rabbits, feasting on some healthy green grass. “What do you see?” came a voice from behind us. Our neighbors again.

“Did you decide to go for a longer walk?” I asked.

“We did,” one of the neighbors responded. “We also felt a little uncomfortable with that biker back there.”

“You came back for us?” I asked.

“There is power in numbers. Us girls need to stick together,” they said.

We all walked home together, chatting and feeling lucky to be surrounded by so much good.