Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: PICNIC (07/14/22)
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TITLE: A Picnic for One | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Bahlke
07/20/22 -
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The basket contained two bottles of water, the “fancy spring kind” her father would joke, and a bag of plain, inexpensive potato chips. “We spent a lot of summer days here, Dad,” Linny whispered to no one. Looking out at the small fishing lake with its cattails and lily pads thriving near the bank, Linny knew she needed to be there, even if it was a picnic for one; something she was getting used to, one painful year at a time. “Don’t follow me.” Her father had made her promise, as she watched him plunge a needle loaded with heroin into his arm. As he loosened the rubber banding that constricted and made his vein bulge, he shouted the words twice in slow, determined tones before he lay back on the blanket, looking up at the clouds, his blue eyes glistening and then dulling before he closed them altogether. Linney could remember laying her head on his chest, feeling the rise and fall of his breathing, and only then would she sit up, and finish the bag of chips, one at a time while she waited.
In moments of clarity, her father would tell her to look into his eyes and to “know with all your heart Linney, that I love you. And I am sorry. I can’t fix myself, love. Please Linney, don’t follow me.” Tears fell from her eyes in large drops, wetting her cheeks and staining her favorite t-shirt. As yet another memory came rushing back, Linney cried out, “Dad, they keep pushing me—and it’s everywhere! I don’t want their meth, or heroin or whatever, but I do want to be happy.” Linney lowered her voice and took in a breath then slowly, deliberately released it into the warm air. “They say it will make me happy Dad and will take the edge off. Is that why you did it? To be happy?” Just then, Linney caught sight of some kid on the shore bank. She watched him cast a line into the water and reel it back in. Her thoughts drifted again, “Why wasn’t I enough Dad, to make you quit?”
Linney reached into the picnic basket and fumbled for the bottle of water, as she watched the kid cast his line again and again. She rolled her eyes. “That’s at least twenty times now. I doubt he’ll catch anything that way.” Linney took a swig of the water and packed a few more chips into her mouth. She brushed her hands off, stood up, and walked over to the boy. “Hey, need some help?” she asked.
“Naw, I’m just goofing around.”
“Oh,” and then, “Are you here with someone?”
“Yeah, my mom’s in the car. She doesn’t know how to fish.”
“Neither do you,” Linney joked. “How old are you anyway?”
“I’m ten tomorrow.”
“Ah, well happy birthday to ya. Hey, you want a bottle of water and some potato chips to celebrate, I mean if your mom doesn’t care?”
Linney raced back to the blanket and grabbed the picnic basket, she could feel it bump against her hip as she ran across the grass to where the boy stood.
“Picnic?” he asked.
“Yeah, kind of. My dad and me… well we used to have picnics a lot.”
“Is he here?”
“Nope. He died a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
Linney nodded. “He uh, was an addict and overdosed. I wasn’t ready for that. I thought he could change.”
“I bet he tried for you. And--I bet he doesn’t want you to follow in his footsteps, at least not that kind. Drugs are crap. That’s why I’m making my own revolution.”
“You mean resolution?”
“No, I mean revolution.”
Linney smiled. “Can I follow you?”
“Sure. Can you teach me to fish?”
Linney grinned, extended the picnic basket, and looked toward the heavens. “Thank you,” she whispered.
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