I’m a light sleeper but I’m convinced that I learned this behavior.
Dad is an early riser. If I wanted to join him on his Sunday morning bagel run, then I needed to be up early. For some time, I wouldn’t wake up until I heard the sound of the sun catcher rattling against the glass of the side door, followed by the click of the lock—too late!
Eventually, I trained my body to wake up at sound of the shuffling of bare feet on hall carpet. After the bathroom door closed, I had about thirty minutes. Generally, I’d go back to sleep for a few more minutes before getting up, getting fully dressed, and waiting for the bathroom to be free.
Then Dad and I would climb into whichever car Dad was driving at the time—Aries/Blazer/Jeep—and cruising through the pre-dawn morning, up Route 73 to the family-owned bagel place in Marlton. The way back was a less direct route: a leisurely drive past Cherokee High School to Kettle Run Road, which wound through pine lands and lakes, to Taunton Road and back to Berlin. No matter what the weather, these drives are always beautiful.
The key though, was hearing those footsteps in the hall.
Written for the writing prompt, Footsteps in the Hall.
Copyright © 2011 Jennifer A. Liss
Playing in Puddles 
One reply on “Bagel run”
I’ve got less criticism here as such than just suggestions on how it might be expanded. It’s pretty decent all-around as is, but I feel like it could be even better if there were more detail about the drive. I know that the focus of the prompt was on the footsteps themselves, but I felt like there was a lot of detail about the footsteps and then just kind of a sketch of the rest. I think the part about the actual drive could benefit from some description of how it felt to be out in the predawn, what makes the drive back so beautiful, some more contrast between the two routes, etc.
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