Do you remember the bus ride home from school? The sun would filter in and out from behind the trees, hitting your eyes. Of course you didn’t have sunglasses. You just got the headache from the moving bus. When you got home, you saw spots from the dappled sun for a bit and then you did your homework.
Or, at least you knew you had to do your homework. You were supposed to do your homework.
My parents had to remind me. A lot. It took repeated reminding for me to get to work. I wasn’t what you would call a fan of homework.
There was also piano to practice.
And lines to memorize.
Now, I don’t have to practice piano. (Although my piano sits in the corner, wishing I played, I think.)
Now, I have no lines to memorize. (Although I have a lot of lines I’d like to say. Maybe I should practice those.)
Today, I just have to write.
And then I can move on with the evening.
But for awhile the sun filtered in through my big window. It wasn’t dappled. Why isn’t undappled a word?
I had to sit in the corner of my couch with my head tilted just right, so the sun wouldn’t shine directly in my eyes, and I could think straight.
Well, straighter than with the sun blinding me.
Nobody reminded me to write.
The sun is setting, undappled, and I finally wrote.
On a Thought 
This is beautiful…the cadence & rhythm, the word choices and the repetition. Truly beautiful.
Thank you so much for this kind comment!
Ugh! Absolutely gorgeous. Your words reminded me of the piano unpracticed and the homework undone of my own childhood. I think undappled should be a word as well.
Thank you so much! yes – I think maybe we can just decide it’s a word… 🙂
I love your train of thought here, as you are letting your mind wander. You have done a great job of pulling all of these thoughts together to build a story, and bring us into a larger view, and then zoom in to your thinking. I love your use of paragraph breaks.
Thank you! I do like a good paragraph break! 🙂
i love the tone of resignation that “undappled” will just have to stand as the next great word for the opposite of dappled. Who needs an antonym when you’ve got the dappled light through the bus window to remind us of how those rays freckled our corneas before we could afford Ray Bans?
Love the way you say that – “those rays freckled our corneas…” Thank you!
I say undappled is a word, and that this whole post is bathed in dappled light from yesteryear, shining on now! Such an intriguing way of telling a story – I could relate to so much of it, too, except the piano. AlthoughI wish I’d learned how to play.
This is SO beautiful! I love the description of the sun through the schoolbus windows. I wouldn’t have said I remembered that, but your words conjured up those memories I didn’t know I had any longer. I also love your shift into what happened when you got home, and your time at home now. –Really, I loved all of it!