Turn over the mossiest rock and look for it there. It might be hiding in the tall grasses by the murky, emerald pond or sprinkled in the flecks of Erin’s eyes; locked into her arresting gaze. It could be threaded into the blade of light that pools onto your bedroom floor. It could be curled up, waiting, waiting, inside your grandmother’s Matryoshka dolls, waiting to be discovered. It could be folded into the twisted hands of a woman on the metro who stares at nothing and no one. She is consumed by her most secret thoughts. Maybe it’s meant to be found in the summer swelter of a five o’clock soccer game at the college fields. It could be poised behind the shed, ready to jump out at you with waving arms and bated breath. In the syrup bottle at the local diner; maybe it will pour out slowly at first, and then all at once. Do you like peanut butter on your pancakes? Look for it in the jar on the top shelf of your kitchen cabinet. Look for it in the yellowed pages of your favorite book from when you were nine. Become that girl again. The thing about children is that they know intuitively where to look for it. They know that it’s merely hiding in a game of hide-and-seek. Perhaps it’s more about the pursuit of searching than the satisfaction of finding.
Children lose things carelessly, purposely, for they know that they can be rediscovered. Maybe that’s why elementary schools have a lost and found littered with lunch boxes and jackets. Did you check your lunchbox? Did you remember to look through your pockets?
ABOUT:
Madeira Miller is a writer and poet seeking a creative writing degree at Missouri State University. Her work appears in ‘Dreamstones of Summer’ by WinglessDreamer, ‘Praised by December’ by WinglessDreamer, Every Day Fiction Online Magazine, F3LL Digital Magazine, The Gateway Review Literary Magazine, ‘My Cityline by WinglessDreamer,’ The Bookends Review Creative Arts Journal, ‘Sea or Seashore’ by WinglessDreamer, Bridge Eight Press, and In Parentheses Literary Magazine. You can follow on Instagram: @madeiramiller.
EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING:
recess - Brynn Cortez