One Precious Moment

We were laughing at Mickey Mouse when it happened.

Mickey was dancing a Charleston with a giggling woman wearing a Family Soto t-shirt and an uncontrollable grin under her mouse ears.

A jazz band played a lively tune. The trumpets, trombones, and drums mixed with the low buzz of conversation, the punctuation of shouting children, the deep rumble of an approaching steam engine.

It was cool. Not cold enough to be uncomfortable in our short sleeves, but that perfect temperature where sunwarmed skin is cooled instantly by a breeze scented with cinnamon and sugar.

The sun had begun its decent, making the windows of Main Street glitter like the diamonds in Cinderella's tiara. It was time to go but before we left, we bought hot churros from a cart and listened to the music, laughing at Mickey dancing.

The train pulled into the station and let loose a whistle.

Between the first and the second whistle, in a tiny measure of time as the band stilled their music, it happened.

Sometimes it takes me by surprise. Sometimes it builds until it's the most natural thing in the world to occur. When it happens, I freeze the moment, the time always less than a second, and tuck it into my heart to hold tight.

I looked at Joseph, still missing so many of his teeth, his face elongating from the chubby preschooler and becoming that of the eight year old he'll soon be. His hair, carefully styled in the morning, was flopped on his forehead in the front and standing on end in the back. How many times did I trace the whorls of hair on the back of his nearly bald baby head? He stood with a hand wrapped around his treat, his posture that of his father's, his easy laugh mine.

I looked at Elizabeth with her dimpled, rosy cheeks. Her fingers and hands are still small and plump where they clutched the wax paper protecting them from cinnamon and sugar. She looked at me with her wide, milk white smile as that same breeze cooling our skin tore even more curls from twin braids. She wiggled her strong little body as she waltzed with her churro. Her brother's laughter spurred an answering glint in her eyes.

I took a deep breath as pain shot through my chest, bringing tears to my eyes. In the space of time between the first whistle and the second, my heart exploded.

I pulled Joseph to me, kissing his face. He squirmed and rolled his eyes, but his lips smiled. Elizabeth turned her face to me for a kiss before I had finished hugging her brother. Gathering them both into my arms I squeezed until we were all coated in cinnamon.

"Do you know how very much I love you?" I asked with an ache in my heart.

They nodded and laughed.

The band started up again.

The train pulled from the station.

Mickey began to dance.

The moment passed.