Drabble:101
POV:Third Person
One of Vika's earliest memories was of learning to tie shoe-laces. Something that inane shouldn't have been special. But for her it was. It was something she held dear and cherished.
She'd been four at that time.
It had been Easter and Vika's older siblings had come home for the holidays. Olena had cooked up a storm and had been fussing over the others so much that she looked ready to pass out any second.
That morning, Karo had helped Vika put on her new lilac dress and Olena had tied her hair with a pretty ribbon. Vika had then sat at the kitchen table and eaten her breakfast while watching Sonya bicker with Olena.
Sonya hadn't wanted to go to church, but Olena had insisted, saying that it was a family tradition. Sonya had retorted that she shouldn't be forced to attend church when she didn't believe. And so on and so forth.
In the end, Olena had won, as always, and a disgruntled Sonya had stomped up to her room to primp. Olena had come to the kitchen to grab her coffee mug and after ensuring that Vika had eaten properly, she'd rushed to her own room to get ready, asking Vika to put on her shoes.
Vika had walked by Karolina, who had sitting in the den putting on lipstick. Dimka had yet to reappear from his room after Olena had ordered him up to 'make his hair decent'. And knowing Dimka, he'd wait till the very last moment before coming down, so that Olena couldn't send him up again to change his tie or socks or something.
Vika had retrieved her shoes from her room and walked to the den. Sitting down at the end of the sofa, Vika had dropped the shoebox to the floor to examine her new shoes.
They were white, lacy and very pretty. Vika couldn't stop looking at them.
There was one little problem though.
They had strings and Vika hadn't known how tie knots. All her shoes had buckles; she'd never had shoes with shoe-laces. Vika kept staring at them, not knowing what to do.
She would have asked Karo for help, but she had been putting on mascara, her mouth shaped in an 'O'. Olena was bustling around in the kitchen and she looked so harried Vika hadn't wanted to disturb her. Asking Sonya was out of the question because she tended to snap at the smallest provocation (part-and-parcel of teenage, according to Dimka).
So Vika had sighed and looked down pitifully at her socked feet. She wanted to wear her brand-new pretty shoes and show them off to her friends, but she couldn't. She'd been getting ready to forego the new shoes for her old black shoes when suddenly a hand enclosed one of hers and grabbed one of the shoes.
Startled out of her moping, she saw Dimka kneeling on the floor and holding up her ankle. He'd helped her put on the shoe and tied the shoe-lace in a way that her view remained unobstructed and she got to see what he was doing. After knotting the shoe properly, he'd gestured for her to practice with her other shoe. Under Dimka's tutelage (and with a little help from him), Vika had managed to knot her shoe successfully.
She'd grinned at Dimka and he'd smiled at her, ruffling her hair and kissing her forehead, before walking to the kitchen (to calm Olena down).
The next day, he'd made her practice her knotting with a piece of rope and over the next few days, he'd taught her various ways of knotting. It had been a beautiful bonding moment between the siblings.
It was a memory that still made Vika smile fondly.
So when Dimka and Roza's daughter Anya turned four, Vika had gifted her niece a pair of fluffy pink booties-with shoelaces- knowing that Dimka would understand.
So, I'm back. And writing again. As you can see. :p
Forgive me if this moment seeming a bit 'awkward' in articulation, because I'm out of practice with writing. But, thank you for reading. And please review! Cheers!