The Balance

She cannot resist the impulse. Walking on the edge of the curb is so easy, so innocuous. Just a quick little step and she is up. Feet bare for the summer carefully step heel to toe and instinctively the arms fly out to help hold the position. Of course, a song starts to well up and bubble out through her lips. The sky and trees and little bits of grass all reach out to hold the ballerina dancing on the curb.
Curbs are attached to streets though and this creates a problem. Streets are used by cars. Cars that are driven by people who are distracted. People too distracted perhaps to see the ballerina singing on the top of the curb carried away in the moment of sky and trees and little bits of grass.
Curbs are also attached to sidewalks. Sidewalks are innocent except for the things that are on them. Things like ant piles that house a million stinging insects. Things like the broken glass from the bottle chunked out the window. Things like the dog charged with guarding his territory. Things that cannot or will not hear the bubbling song sung to the trees.
What is at once delightful is at the same time fraught with danger. Freedom and risk mingle in the balance. The edge is the beginning and the end but mainly it is the middle. It is in the middle where balance must occur.
She does not know this. She is lost in a moment in time and space. She is balanced in a moment of joy. For this moment there is no more world around her. There is only the world of her imagination. There is only the freedom. She can feel the blue of sky on her cheek. A leap and she is the star dancer.
Danger comes now. The car driven by the woman as lost in her thoughts as the girl is lost in her music. Neither is aware of the other. The woman is speeding and the girl is swirling. The Father though is orchestrating the dance. He holds the balance. His hand grabs the girl and guides her spin to the grass. His hand gently turns the steering wheel. Neither of them are even aware that the balance has been maintained.
The girl throws her arms up and over her head. She sings one more brilliant line. A quick hop and she is on the sidewalk running home before dark falls. The woman sees the stop sign and awakes from her thoughts. She drives home.
The balance is maintained.