My mom, woke herself and fetched me from my bed to whisk me down stairs. The hickory steps were cool beneath my feet, but kitchen porcelain still cooler. There was a faint glow peeking in from the widow as the sun was in the oafish phase of not still down, but not yet up. Like clockwork, mom turned on the TV. As usual, it on to some boring weather channel - women in nice looking clothes pointing at maps with colorful squiggly lines. I never tried to understand what they were prattling on about. I took hefty spoonfuls of my Rice Krispies, and could feel the small flakes travel down my throat. The empty clank of my spoon on the bowl adduced me to head back upstairs. Hiking up the steps I almost slipped on the my rainbow homework folders, plaster with Karissa D, 4th Grade in thick black Sharpie.

Entering my room, I turned on the light switch and let out a sulty, white sneeze leaving a burn in the tip of my nose. A million dusk flakes floated around the air. The incandescent light bulb behind my dolied protected lamp shade served as a simple microscope - allowing me to see something invisible from in plain sight. Facing my closet, I shoved the heavy wood doors to the side with my hands. Kneeling down I pulled out a pair of beautiful bulky rain boots. I was greeted with the familiar stench of feet, a tang which wafts upward and mingles with the smell of detergent from the hanging clothes. I perfectly place my boots on the floor and throw on a tee shirt and a well-worn pair of jeans. With great care, I slip on my boots, one foot at a time. The dainty flower pattern always makes me excited for spring.

“Don’t be late for school,” my mom calls out to me as I across the yard. I can hear the motherly worry in her words.

Turing my head, I give a soft smile and answer, “Always.”

The sun had almost broke the thin light of day break through the passing dark clouds. The air smelt like rain, that light, clean aroma the day after rainfall. As I walked, by boots sank into the ground creating a puddle encompassing my soles. With each step it leaves behind a sharp squish noise.

I was barely a block away, where the duochromatic playgrounds come into view after entering the looming chain fence. There too is an open range of grass, the one we normally place soccer on… only now it’s scattered with puddles. I bite my lip as I peer down at my boots then back to the lot of puddles. A smirk slides onto my face and I make a decision any kid would. My foot stomps down on the ground making a splash. I do this for a little over four minutes until I come across the last puddle.

Lifting my knee well above ninety degree, I slam my foot down. Only this time, my foot keeps going - going until the puddle completely swallows my boot and the clear half of my leg. A wave of panic completely floods my head. Water is pouring in my boot, and I can feel my boot becoming slimy with mud. My once lukewarm boots are now as soggy as the grimey kitchen sponge. Hot tears come streaming from my eyes as I continuously try and fail to pull my foot out of the quick sand like water. I start feeling hopeless, for the harder I yank my leg, the more the ground swallows it. In my frenzy, I let go a silent tear and only slip my foot out out of my trapped boot in the hole. At this point I’m crying uncontrollably as I stand on the mushy muddy grass with one boot on and my sock-exposed foot on the other. On my knees, my wobbly, worried hands grasped my boot pull strap. Giving a well fought fight, the mud hole finally freed my trapped boot and released its suction.

There I stood, standing over the sludge hole clutching onto my dripping boot. Acting like weights, my shoulders feel a gravitational pull to the ground. My nose was sniffly from crying, but I could still whiff the aroma in the air … that clean smell of the air after it rains.  I feel as though someone ringed my heart out like the kitchen sponge, just completely hollow. This unfamiliar feel of heart break just made me want to just crawl under my bed covers and just stay there. Forever.

Standing -- wearing my one boot -- I’d made the rash decision to just run home. In that moment, I just didn’t care about school. It was as if all my concern and academic interest evaporated into nothingness. All mind could focus on are the words panic and petrified, spray painted in my inner skull.

With each stride, my drenched sock left behind smack noice across the pavement, followed by a clunk of a boot. Each breathe got heavy and short as I sprinted back home. For some reason, I could just feel my heart sitting, broken, at the bottom of my chest. An unfortunate event such as this, I feel only happens in movies or story books. There I ran… running away from it all. A normal day with so much potential of being wonderful, turned sour so quickly. As silly as it sounds, life to this point has been perfect, for the only struggle I’ve faced has been what snack to pack for school. It truly feels as though my life all of sudden came crashing apart; As if the clouds fell from the sky and the beauty in life, has simply vanished. My boot will never be as pure as it once was, there will always be a trace, a reminder of what happened on this day. As I slip my boot on, my mind will adduce me to flash backs. A constant reminder of how one day life just wasn’t on my side.