Page 76 of The Shell Collector
“I knew it!” Jesse smacked Paul’s hand in a very low high five.
“It’s a surprise for both of you.” He dropped to his knees. “Want to know why?”
“Yes.”
“Because there are two monkeys on it. Like you two.”
“We’re not monkeys.” Jesse pursed his lips. “Nope.”
“You seem like silly monkeys to me.”
“No, I’m a boy.” Jesse cocked his hip out, propping his hand on it. “And she’s a sister.”
“Hmm. Do you like to climb?” Paul began the inquisition.
“Yep.”
“And laugh?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And most importantly, do you like bananas?”
“Mmm.” They both licked their lips. “We love bananas.”
“Well, there you go. And lucky, too, because I brought you frozen bananas for a snack, along with this super-special acrobatic surprise.”
“Frozen?”
“They are so yummy!” Paul doled out the frozen bananas. “First, one for Mommy. Then Hailey, because ladies first.”
“And Jesse!”
“And Jesse. There you go.” Paul crumpled the bag and tossed it into the bigger bag, then pulled out a long something or other.
“What on earth is that?” Amanda asked.
“This bright-green—”
“Green’s my favorite color!” Hailey screamed. “If it’s not pink.”
“…kite has two monkeys eating bananas on it, and look, their tails hang super long from each side of it. We are going to fly this in the air.”
The kids’ eyes widened, but they looked to Amanda for confirmation.
“When your dad and I were young, we used to fly kites on the beach.”
“How do you make a kite fly?” Hailey asked.
“I’ll show you.”
They gnawed on the frozen bananas while Paul wound up the kite string. He had a fancy plastic contraption way nicer than the stick Amanda had used when she was a kid in the neighborhood park trying to fly a diamond-shaped paper kite.
By the time Paul had rigged up the huge kite, the kids had devoured the bananas and run down to the water to rinse away the stickiness. This wasn’t your average dollar-store kite. It was as wide as Amanda was long.
As Hailey and Jesse ran up, Paul turned to her. “I hope you’re ready to be impressed.”
She rolled her eyes. He and Jack had always been in a race to one-up each other, only now Paul seemed to be mastering it alone. He took off his shirt and dropped it to the sheet, then lifted the kite into the air and started running. “Come on, kids. You have to run with me or it won’t take off!”
