a world through Denise's eyes
Recently, our friends Lucy and Chloe had a new friend over — Denise. She’s two years younger than me, but she reminds me a lot of my younger self. She’s really quiet and doesn’t talk much — just nods or speaks softly. I heard her giggle once, which was nice to hear 🙂. She also loves gross stuff like touching mud, pigeons, and even dead fish or rats. Denise collects small things like pebbles and leaves, tucks them into her pockets, and loves wandering around noticing the small things in life.
For the first time, I played real chess ♟️ with her. I’m just a beginner learning online, and I don’t know how she learned, but I’m guessing she’s had some practice. Denise and I played — and she won.
Later, Lucy and I played too, but she barely knew anything, so it was an easy win. It was kinda cute when I kept attacking her pieces and she didn’t know what to do.
We played several other games too — badminton, carrom, Jenga, Uno — and jammed to some music afterward. Once, we also had pani puri; one of the best things about city life is that you can find street food on every corner 🤌😜.
Ate some pani puri on a rainy night 🌃
Another day, we all got wet in the rain ⛈️ and it was so fun. Denise was doing somersaults and splashing water everywhere. It was such a nice day — after the showers stopped, it felt like our faces had become clean, like a soft glow.
Sometimes I think kids like Denise see life better than we do — not through screens or stress, but through tiny, messy, beautiful moments. Maybe we all need a little bit of her in us.