Shelby the Fearless

A little girl who looked about ten climbed up on the playground and asked, "Do you guys play the guitar?"

Logan had his guitar and amp plugged in, and I answered, "Well, they do, but I don't. I play the piano and the bass guitar."

The girl watched us for a bit, and then said,"My name's Shelby. What's yours?"

I told her mine and Logan's and Tyler's, and she continiued,"I used to play the guitar, but mine got all smashed up."

She hung around, and eventually, when Logan and Tyler left to go do something with the amp, I hung out with her under the playground stuff with her brother, cousin, and friends. It turns out she was nine years old, not ten. She was in the third grade.

Those kids were some of the coolest kids ever. We talked about what they were in to, and they were really mature for their age. It was really nice talking to them.

When Logan started playing his guitar, Shelby sat next to me on top of the playground equipment and we watched him.

"He's really good," Shelby said. "He's kind of cute, too. That's good. He can play the guitar, and he's cute. I already have a boyfriend, though."

"Really?" I asked. I sighed at heart, though. Kids grow up way too fast. I suppose I did, too, though. "What's his name?"

"Levi," she replied. "He's really nice."

"I have a friend named Levi," I said. "I really like that name."

I looked over at another group of people across the park. They appeared to be punk rockers, and it looked as though they all had swords.

"Hey," I said to Shelby, "do those kids have swords?"

She looked. "I don't know," she said. "Let me go check."

"Oh, wait, you don't have to-"

But she was already off, fearlessly running secret-agent style across the park to the sword-weilding punk rockers. I pondered this. It was strange to me that she wasn't the least bit afraid, especially of people with swords. When I was younger, it seemed like I would have been afraid of people with swords. But I can't remember, so I'm not quite sure. Perhaps she was just a brave little girl.

When she returned, she climbed onto the playground and said, "Yep. They're swords. I don't know what kind they are, but they're definitely swords." I wondered what she referred to when she said what kinds of swords, but I decided not to ask.

When my family was leaving, I ran back over to the playground equipment to say bye to Shelby.

"Shelby, I've got to go," I said. "We're going home."

"Aww, you are?" she said sadly.

"Yeah," I said, just as sadly, I must admit. "It was great meeting you guys. Maybe I'll see you again sometime. Hey, if one of us gets famous, we can say, 'Hey, I met that girl!' "

We laughed and waved goodbye. As I was walking away, she pointed at her cousin and yelled, "Hey, he said he likes you!" I laughed some more. Days like that are definitely worth having.