It's the weekend! What a great day to go outside to bask in the bright gentle sun, fresh clean air and being excited to see what you are going to discover today.
A brunette boy, with a plain white shirt, brown track pants running down the pathway with a small back pack on his back, expected to meet with his buddy on the other end.
"Riku!" the brunette called out, while he waved his right hand in the air in excitement.
The boy, wearing a yellow shirt and grey coloured pants, sitting on the bench, stopped what he was staring at and quickly shifted his sights on his approaching eager friend, then proceeded in climbing down the bench.
"Sora-"
"Look what I got!" the excited child said in excitement. He laid his little backpack on the ground and then quickly rummaged his bag and took out something. Naturally by this point Riku was curious as he tried to peek by shifting side to side in attempt to overlook Sora's shoulders.
Sora finally had it in hand and turned around then thrust the item to the other boy's hands. Riku was confused at first and then by the time he registered to the thing in his hand he knew what it was.
It was rectangular machinery with a cute little button on the top right edge, a viewfinder right in the centre and plaster with "Komak" brand cover. It was a disposable camera.
Riku's eyes became wide and smile grew, "Let's go take photos!"
In agreement Sora nodded with enthusiasm and the two proceeded in running down the path past the bench they were at, with Riku in the lead with the camera.
Click click click went the camera.
Along the path, they continued through a tunnel made of treetops where sunlight pierces through the gaps between leaves. The leaves were green today with water drops dangling the ends from the morning tending, groups of people strolling by while marvelling at the lighting in the area and a few majestic roots at the side of the path.
Click click click went the camera.
They arrived at the wide open lake with so many birds flocking towards the water's body. There were swans, there were ducks, there were several other birds which the two don't know, but they still looked fascinating to the boys. Surrounding the lake were runners pacing themselves with headphones, fellow children with their parents hand in hand while sprinkling bread crumbs and people sitting around having a good time by the benches and small barbeque areas.
Every time Sora pointed at in fascination, the camera followed.
Click click click went the camera.
As they continued along the path they arrived at the heart and main attraction of the park, the playground!
It was filled with children the area and surrounded it their guardians sitting on nearby benches.
The floor made of fake very short grass-like material supporting the rather elaborated course of equipment. Starting on one end were the bright red monkey bars, then to the rope lattice elevating to higher ground, a bridge connected to another base. On the side of this base was a tunnel slide down to the ground, ahead was a a pair rotating tunnel operated a kids on one side turning it, then a mini pavilion sheltering the next base. Continuing this path gets you to a flat floored L shaped bridge to the group with a finishing flags as exiting flaps.
Just before Riku held up the camera in hand and proceeding to press down the button...
"Um... Riku?" Sora muttered nervously.
Riku stopped in his tracks and Sora absentmindedly bumped into Riku.
"Can I have a turn now?"
Riku thought about it for a moment and looked to the huge playground and back to Sora with a competitive grin. Sora knew this look oh so well.
Riku set down the camera at the other end of the playground and then let other kids know that they are going to compete. During this time, Sora was battling out within between doubt and confidence. He tossed back and forth in mind, causing Sora to swallow a bit and tightened his eyes while he waited by the starting point where the monkey bar are.
A girl accompanied Riku back to where young nervous Sora waited. Riku passed a cheeky grin once more before he advert his attention to the girl who stood in front of them.
3.
Sora readied.
2.
Riku readied.
1.
The two gave a quick glance at each other then-
GO!
Off they went.
The entire coarse of was enough for two kids or more to fit through. So starting at the monkey bars, Riku was in the lead, Sora somewhat struggled to lay a firm grip on the on each bar. Riku left the monkey bars and swiftly climbed the rope lattice slope. Not far behind was Sora.
"Hurry up slowpoke!" Riku taunted who kind of just stopped there to further mock Sora's pace.
Sora frowned and finally reached the rotating tunnels. Sora took a slow breath in while fighting off his doubts as he slowly placed his hand and knees into the tunnel. He paced himself inside, one hand and knee at a time.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Sora noticed the sound and climbed out of the tunnel. Just before he proceeded, he looked back into Riku's tunnel and saw Riku struggling halfway of the tunnel.
The idea of winning played on Sora's mind. After losing so many times to Riku and being made fun of by Riku so many times in their series of competitions, Sora pursed his lips and shifting his eyes to the end.
Riku s noticed ahead of the tunnel Sora reached out his hand to him, without much hesitation he took Sora's hand to get out of his little predicament.
The rather proud Riku dusted off dirt from his clothing and muttered to himself "Sora, you are too nice for your own good."
The other noticed Riku said something and tugged on his shoulder, "what is it? What did you say"
Riku took off Sora's hand off his shoulder and said, "Isn't there something we should finish?"
Ahead was a straight forward dash to the finish line with the L shaped pathway to the ground. Riku started ahead followed by, in surprise, Sora trying his very best trying to catch up.
Every step has every effort what Sora count muster in each and every moment; he could see that he was...
Closer,
And closer,
And closer,
And almost there...
"I won!" Cheered Riku in victory. He jumped in glee then taking the camera from the ground. Other kids crowded around Riku in victory. After several moments Riku snapped out of basking in the glory and saw Sora kicking around as he looked to his toes, Riku moved his way through to Sora and gave him the prize.
Out of surprise and slowly blooming into happiness, Sora said "Thank you". Then he looked to the girl from the start of the race and asked "Can you take a photo of us?"
She nodded and the two positioned themselves in front of the playground of their race with the biggest smiles on their face.
CLICK!
-'See what the Camera Sees'-
Thank you for reading my first short story in a very, very long time! I wanted to vent out a very short story with a simple meaning and has some sort of fascinating pace. It was a challenge indeed from not writing for this long and I'm quite proud of how this story turned out.
Hope you liked it and comment what you think and perhaps what kind of short stories you might like to see from me.