Sweet Spring Day

Out at Coney Island, I met a very young girl today who lives with a dog but wants a cat. It was the perfect day to introduce Marykitty to the magic of Coney Island and I kneeled next to the little girl so she could pet her and she was clearly enthralled and so in love with petting Marycat.

I’d already met a girl on the train on the way down from 23rd street who wanted to pet Mary. She was with her mother and grandmother and the three of them, wearing sunglasses the whole train ride, looked fabulous together. Probably, the kitty and the girl were about the same age, relatively, both going to Coney Island for the first time and excited about their outing. It felt a little as if Mary was making friends everywhere we went.

Coney Island was full of lovely people and pretty weather and the smells of all the things we weren’t going to indulge in and when we were satisfied and ready to go back we ran for the train and made it. Across from us sat a young girl, maybe seven, quietly singing the alphabet to herself because the stops made her think of the letters and when she felt herself unobserved, she danced a little too.

We were in the front car and there was a bigger girl, maybe eleven or twelve, clearly on an adventure in her New York Yankees cap and with the legs of her jeans rolled up because it felt like summer. She was glued to the forward-facing window of the train the whole way, pretending to be the voice that tells everyone to stand clear of the closing doors.

It was good to get home after, and our little Marykitty walked out of her bag like she owned the world.