On the Pavement - A little Dig Dug Fluff
Got bored, wrote some fluff. Yay.
“You’re going to try and make some friends today, right Danny?” His mom dug through his backpack one last time, pulling out a few plastic shovels that had been buried underneath all of his school supplies. Then, she herded her son out the front door and into the car.
“Mhm,” Danny answered, though it was noncommittal and almost silent. He wasn’t one to talk much anyway, so his mother didn’t press any harder.
“Daniel, why don’t you go play on the swings with the other kids?” his teacher said gently, the little boy not even bothering to look up from his work on the ground. “You’re going to get your clothes all dirty digging in the dirt like this.”
Danny didn’t answer and blatantly ignored his teacher, forcing her to coax the boy off the ground. His nails were caked with playground dirt and his palms and jeans were covered in grass stains. For the rest of recess, Danny sat on a swing, staring at his feet that dangled above the mulch, and talked to no one.
At the end of the day, Danny stood outside with the rest of the kids, waiting for his mom to come pick him up outside the school. Teachers scurried around trying to usher kids into the correct cars and make sure parents didn’t get too impatient. Danny stared straight ahead and waited for the familiar car that was coming to retrieve him.
“‘Scuse me,” a little voice said, accompanied by the feeling of something tugging on the jacket Danny had pulled tightly around him, even in the blaring California sun. Danny blinked owlishly, turning his head to the source of the voice, a little boy that must have been at least a grade below him. “I—uh—I can’t find my teacher and I’m gonna get in trouble if I don’t find her.”
Danny offered nothing more than a small hum of acknowledgement before turning his head back tot he line of cars that was steadily appearing and disappearing as children were taken off by their parents.
“Please,” the little boy tried again. “I don’t know what to do.” His voice became shaky and Danny could practically hear the quiver in his lip. A sniffle followed.
After a moment, Danny pulled a hand out of his jacket pocket and offered it to the boy, which he accepted. Then, silently, Danny led him through the crowd of kids and teachers and parents, pointing out teachers that could possibly be the one this boy was looking for.
But the boy didn’t find his teacher, even after the second cycle around the little loop of car riders. Danny paused back at the original place that he’d been standing before this boy had showed up, but kept his hand clasped around the boy’s, who was quickly falling to pieces again.
He wiped a pudgy arm across his face. “I can’t find her,” he whined, the tears free-flowing. “I don’t know what to do.”
Danny squeezed his hand and looked down at the boy. “I’ll wait here with you until your mom comes. What’s your name?”
“Arin,” the boy muttered. He looked up at Danny with an idolizing expression.
“I’m Danny.” He offered a small smile, knowing that Arin was depending on him to be positive. And so that’s what Danny did. He held Arin’s hand and talked to him about dinosaurs and all the bones that were buried deep in the earth. He told Arin all about how he was going to dig to the center of the earth one day, getting Arin excited about the prospect in the process.
Finally, Arin’s mom showed up and Danny walked him over to his car, where Arin immediately began telling his mom all about Danny and how he’d helped him. But Danny stayed silent and only looked at Arin’s mom when he figured it was polite to do so. Then, he went back to his spot on the sidewalk and waited for his own mom to show up.
He said nothing to her as he hopped into his own car to head home, but there was a lighter air about him that even she could feel.
The next day, Danny was eager to get to school. He was fidgety and particularly antsy. And when it came time for the end of the day, Danny stood in his usual spot and looked around anxiously, teeth digging into his bottom lip. As he scanned the crowd of kids and teachers, a small hand slipped into his own, larger one, and Danny smiled.