One Step at a Time

Jack held the mightiest instrument of creation in his right hand, and a blank world to play God to in his left. His perch was the damp, green earth, and his bare legs soaked in the morning dew. A gentle breeze passed through every brown strand of hair on his head, and the sun gave a warmth and glow like no other. He soon heard the telltale chirps of the little sparrows, rising early as always. Never failing to answer the light of day. “Hold still, birdie,” he whispered soothingly. A new being of graphite entered his world.
“Yo!” Jack almost fell over, even though he was sitting. He felt his heart skip a few beats, but his blurred vision soon made out the figure of a blond girl behind him, about his age, standing with her body arched back and hands held behind her. “What’cha doin’ here, Jack? A teenager shouldn’t be out in the forest all alone, even if it is you,” she said with a joking smile. His neighbor for as long as he could remember, that girl was pretty much the only friend he had in his ironically lonely city.
“Jeez, Erin!” Jack shouted, gaping for breath, “You scared me half to death!” He sat for a moment longer, pencil drenched with sweat from the erratic pumps of adrenaline that comes with a sudden jerk from equilibrium. “How’d you even find me, all the way out here?”, he asked.
“Your mom isn’t the hardest shell to crack, you know,” she said with a giggle. Erin really was a pretty girl, and to Jack, she seemed to be the only person out of his family that felt... special. Her gentle curls unfurled in the wind, and her cerulean eyes shone brightly as ever. She took a seat beside Jack, making sure not to rustle the grass, smiling all the while.
“Anyways... I’m just sketching the little animals, like I always do,” Jack said, regaining composure. “I never get tired of it, and never will; it just makes me happy.” Grinning, he returned his focus to his canvas, and penciled in the sparrow’s miniature beak.
“You just keep trying to best your father as an artist, don’t you?” Erin said with a smile, patting Jack’s head. It was a bit humiliating, but in a good way. Her eyes began to shine with a glassy reminiscence. “He was a great man, for the time I knew him,” she softly spoke. However, the gentle smile was still on her face, and she was speaking with not regret, but admiration.
“Hell to that,” Jack shouted, raising his fist, “I’m gonna be the best artist there ever was and will be!” Even the first time he picked up his pencil, he was filled with glee despite his mediocre fledgling drawings. He stood straight up, rustling the grass, beaming with the sun in his face. “Crap, I scared the bird...”
“Hey, cheer up!” she said enthusiastically, getting up. “Every morning, you get another chance. And every morning, you get a little closer. One step at a time.”