The Kite

My husband says this is one of our "BEST" stories from this summer....




It was a perfectly wonderful and sunny morning. We (our whole family and my parents) headed out to Jetty Island by way of it's adorable little ferry to take advantage of the last summer weekend run of the year. We had picnic coolers, buckets, blankets, kites, sunscreen and snacks galore. We sat on the open top of the Ferry and took the five minute ride across the river to the long sandy beaches of our playground for the day.




Once settled into our "perfect" picnic spot with all of our gear laid out on the table we were off to explore and scare the flounder by walking for miles on the shallow out tide with sand squishing happily in our toes. We swam, splashed, played sea Frisbee and built sandcastles. Shad had my kite up to the end of my string before I could blink and we took turns walking up and down the waters edge with it. We had decided even before lunch that we would be coming back the following day. Childhood summer days like this are few and far between. This was a summer moment to cherish and make last as long as we possibly could.



As I said, the day was splendid. The boys were playfighting in the sand. Boo ran towards the table and like Young King Arthur he plucked the excalaber driftwood sword out of the sand by the table and turned to run after his brother. But wait, "oh no!" what is that??? The end of my kite string with it's bright pink plastic handle had been carefully placed beneath the sand by my thoughtful husband, wedged under the driftwood sword. "bop bop bop poof!" It skipped three times, went up the small sand dune hill, caught a perfect updraft and magically flew right over two very large birch trees soaring into the great blue skies. A count of three and it was gone from site.



"Wow" I said to my father "Can you believe it missed the trees?" I turned to a broken faced son who looked like at any moment I might strangle him to death. "I am soooooooooooo sorry Mommy!!!!!" he stammered, "I didn't know, I didn't mean too, I am really really sorry, I will buy you another kite, please don't be mad at me?" What could I do? I walked over, hugged him, told him not to worry that I would have been tempted by that paticular piece of wooden swordsmanship myself and that accidents happen and not to let it ruin our day and for goodness sake "GO PLAY!" So I sat back down at the table with my father and took a few moments to reminisce about the life of my beloved kite. I bought that kite right after Shad and I started dating. It has been carted around and packed around and moved around a thousand miles. Oh well, at least it had a romantically tragic ending. Carried through the skies to unknown lands on a perfect summer breeze.




The rest of the day went so well that we actually traded in our return ferry tickets for later ones. No one wanted to leave that day. Worn out, happy and sun kissed we packed up and got ready to head home. Walking the sandy trail to the ferry while watching T drag seaweed off of his aqua socks I happened to glance up. "Hey! No way! Look!" Up there, far far away was my kite, floating against the clouds. We all stopped to look and it was confirmed by mutual consensus. There was my kite. Now, it had been far to long in the day for my kite to be simply hanging out in the breeze. By now it should have been in Canada or the Cascades or something. "I wondered if it got stuck on something in Everett?" I asked. We all took our seats on the upper deck of the ferry and wondered aloud at the improbability of it all. As we crossed the little river, Shad laughed and said it would be funny if it was stuck in the parking lot. "It has to be further than that because it looks so little" I said. The closer we got to the ferry dock the more we realized that it could indeed be in the parking lot. "Look!" said Shad, "I can see the string! It can't be that far if I can see the string. "I don't see any string, your nuts" I said.

"Wait, look at the fishing dock!" he pointed. I looked over at the fishing dock and couldn't believe my eyes. There amidst the hopeful fisherman and crabbers was a bright pink plastic handle wrapped around the edge of the dock. "no way..." It couldn't possibly be mine. "I am sure that there are more than one pink handled kites in the area" I stated. "One that looks just like yours?" said Shad. My mother knows what a baby I am and said that she would go check it out with me. So we dropped our load off to the men and while they dragged the kids towards the vehicles my Mother and I headed towards the dock. "Excuse me..... by any chance was that kite found this afternoon?" I expected for the little group of people to look at me like I was from outerspace but much to my surprise they started to laugh. I then received a very broken English story about how they found an extremely funny kite that hovered right over the river be-bopping (ok they didn't say be-bopping) across the water, the pink handle skipping like a stone on the waves. It went directly toward the fishing dock and a young woman simply reached out and took hold of the handle and just as simple as that, caught it. They said it was quite a site to see coming from the island. "Thanks!" I said with a HUGE smile as she gestured for me to take it. My mother was laughing and I was grinning like a Cheshire cat. I just could not believe that I got my kite back. On the way to the car I brought it in. I almost hated to see it stop its flight for the day. I couldn't wait to show Boo though. "LOOK!" I shouted, holding it high. "IT WAS MY KITE!" "Whew" said Boo. I gave him a big hug and kiss and Shad and I told him that he had given us the best memory and story of the entire summer. We all laughed and laughed all the way home...