The trampling of small feet, paint splattered on the floor, and the ringing of laughter.
An accurate depiction of my Friday evenings.
Clambering into a vehicle with six other people, pop music filtering from the speakers of the car where the driver’s phone is hooked to the aux, discussion of how the past school week went.
The highway speeding by outside. Or maybe we are the ones zooming by as life around us remains still. Frost gathering on the window. That same billboard is still there. That same hotel with the architectural design climbing up the surface of the brick wall.
We pull into the parking lot and gather all the materials to take inside. We group up and head out into the chilly air to pick up the kids attending today.
An accurate depiction of my Friday evenings spent with my fellow City Faces volunteers.
Knocking on doors. One of the kids’ face appears, a smile pulling at the corner of their lips as questions begin to fly out rapidly.
“Y’all city faces?”
“How many people are there today?”
“What are we making?”
“What snacks did y’all get?”
A chuckle escapes my lips as I say, “You have to come to find out! Are you coming today?”
“Yes!”
An accurate depiction of my Friday evenings walking children over to “headquarters” (as one of them called it just the other week).
Chairs strewn around long, white, foldable tables. Fortnite being played on phones. Glue everywhere. Drawings and figurines decorating one of the tables.
A volunteers’ voice breaks through the sound of playing, “Okay, if you want snacks you need to find a seat!”
A pout from a child, “You guys always have goldfish!”
A smile of amusement lights up my features, “We do not always have goldfish, sometimes we have pretzels and gummy snacks.”
“Nuh uh…”
“Do you not like goldfish?”
“I do!”
An accurate depiction of my Friday evenings full of laughter and never ending excitement.
