I’m not keeping up. Look. Everyone is racing past me. Why can’t I keep up?
Shush, Chil’. There’s no race.
But why is everyone going so fast then?
Oh, I don’t know. Foolishness, I guess.
Why is it foolish to go fast?
Why, Chil’, if you go too fast, you don’t have time for seeing the flowers along the way. See.
Oh, Momma, they’re bootiful! What are they called?
Those ones are daisies, Chil’. Pretty, aren’t they? When I was about your age, I’d pick them and bind them together to make daisy chains. Would you like to do that?
Are we allowed to pick them, Momma? Won’t we get in trouble?
Trouble? Why would we get in trouble, Chil’? I don’t see no trouble to get in. Do you?
Um… no. But I thought if we pick the flowers we might.
Then tell me what trouble looks like.
Maybe it looks like a monster.
A monster, you say. And how do we get in this monster you call Trouble?
That’s silly! I can’t get in a monster. Eek!
But you asked if we’d get in trouble. So if Trouble’s a monster, I want to know how we get into it. That matters, don’t it? The how.
I saw a monster eating me!
Oh, Chil’. Come here. No monster’s gonna eat you up while I’m here with you.
…Momma?
Mm?
I still feel him a bit.
I know. Stay here with me a moment.
They sit quietly. After a time, Momma sings.
I’m a little daisy, tall and slim.
Here are my petals. Here is my stem.
When the sun comes up and the rain comes down,
I grow, grow, grow up from the ground.
With the last word, Momma plucks a small daisy, hugging her child all the while.
Momma, you picked a daisy!
I did. I picked it for you.
But what about the monster?
What monster, Chil’? I can’t see no monsters here.
What can you see?
The daisies. And you.
Mm.
…He’s gone quiet.
Mm.
Do you feel safe?
Yes, Momma.
Good. Wanna know what comes next?
Yes.
This.
And this.
And this.
Hehehe! Momma, stop!
I can’t. I’m having too much fun.
Okay… please stop!
Alright, sweet chil’.
Hehehe!
Then shall we make a daisy chain?
Yes, please!
Good.
If we’d been going fast, fast, fast… we might’ve missed all this.
The daisies. And the fun.
Mm.
With that, mother and child sat together and slowly made the longest and prettiest daisy chain ever.