Miss Kelsey Louisa

Miss Kelsey Louisa is only 5 years old. but she’s figuring out a lot of things about life. she knows more than when she was only 4 years old. Kelsey knows about love. it’s the way her dog Sandy chases a laughing squirrel its also the way mama smiles when she gets a letter from daddy Kelsey knows about unfairness too. this one is the way mama calls her for dinner right when she’s almost to the middle of her cherry tootsie roll pop that she saved from the doctor’s office its also the way Molly tripped her in the park when Kelsey didn’t share Kelsey understands nervousness. it’s the way a deer looks when it gets caught eating the roses in the garden maybe its also the way people sometimes twitch…a cracking of the knuckles, a pacing of the floor, a tapping of the foot, even a clenching and unclenching of the lips oh, and Kelsey understands death too. this one is the jingling of the phone during dinner they aren’t supposed to answer it, but sometimes they just have to death is also the sound of the emptiness coming from the broken clock on Kelsey’s bedroom wall all these and more Miss Kelsey Louisa knows. except for one. just one. fear. is it the smell of burning cookies? or maybe the flash of a jolt she feels when someone sneaks up on her during hide-and-seek? or what if it was the time when her favorite color crayon snapped in two? what an awful, awful, desolate noise that was… Kelsey knows about happiness. this one is easy! the shade of the yellow ribbon on the head of a mannequin in the nearby clothing store happiness is sunshine, painted fingernails, sticky sweet watermelon juice running down her face, sand castles, and twirling till she’s dizzy and the entire planet pirouettes around her but most of all, happiness is the way Kelsey felt when her daddy came home and hugged her his camouflage uniform and boots were gleaming Miss Kelsey Louisa is only 5 years old. but she knows a lot of things. many more than when she was 4.