We didn’t know it at the time. It wasn’t planned. But it happened.

On the walk home from our second grade class, my best friend, Vanita, and I took a wee bit of a detour. We walked down the creek bed and into the drainage tunnel. After an immediate right, we discovered a new way of looking at things.

The sight (and site) was pure magic! Whoever thought to build this foxhole was a pure genius!

From inside the gutter, at ants view, car tires whizzed past, feet with voices attached walked above us. Yes, we would be late coming home from school. But the newness, the discovery, the giggles, made it worthwhile.

I’m not sure how much time passed before we saw the car pull in front of us. We recognized the shoes. We definitely recognized the angry voice.

Can you imagine this mother’s horror at seeing our heads in the gutter?

A silent car ride later, Vanita’s mother pulled into my driveway, spoke a few words to my mother, and drove away with my best friend in tow.

Over fifty years later, this brief moment in my life still makes me smile. The world, I’d learned, was not mundane after all. It was filled with shared bonds no one could ever take away and discoveries waiting to be found.

As the world turned, the small heads of two young girls were filled with a new perspective on life.

Vanita and me – obviously photoshopped. Her mother wasn’t packing a Polaroid at the time.

Daily Word prompt: Genius