Maggie smiled, as she grabbed the last two pieces of the set. She put one in its place and then asked Lily to do the last one. Once the castle was complete, Maggie and Lily admired it for a moment. Then Maggie's eyes got wide.
“You want to go out on the playground?” she asked.
Lily chucked softly. “If you're done playing with the Legos, then sure. Let's go on the playground. I'll push you on the swings.”
“Yay!” Maggie squealed, running toward the sliding back door.
She was gone and outside before Lily had even gotten to her feet. A moment later, Mildred came down the stairs and turned the corner toward the living room, nearly running into Lily.
“Oh, hey there,” Mildred said, opening her arms for a hug, which Lily happily accepted. “Wyatt mentioned that you might be stopping by this afternoon. I didn't hear the doorbell ring, but I'm guessing Maggie must have let you in. How are you?”
“I'm doing well,” Lily said. “How are you, Mildred? It's been a few weeks since I've seen you.”
“Things are just fine,” Mildred said. “Well, except that it seems like every day that goes by, Maggie has a little more energy and I have a little less. That girl is getting tougher to keep up with all the time, I'm telling you.”
“You don't have to tell me,” Lily said, laughing. “She runs circles around me.”
“I'
m glad you came by,” Mildred said, released Lily from the hug. “Maggie gets so happy every time she hears that 'Aunt Lily' is coming to visit her. It's really cute. She loves you so much, you know?”
“I love her, too,” Lily said. “To be honest, seeing her makes me happier than anything else does. She's most definitely the light of my life.”
“And I know for a fact that you are the light of hers,” Mildred said. “If there was an award for 'Aunt of the Year', you'd definitely get it.”
Lily smiled. “Well, thanks. That means a lot.”
Mildred had been Maggie's nanny ever since she was born. Because of that, she knew that Lily wasn't technically Maggie's Aunt. She realized that Lily had in fact given birth to Maggie, but also understood the importance of keeping that a secret.
“Is Wyatt here?” Lily asked.
Mildred shook her head. “No, not yet. He had an important meeting this morning, but I imagine that he'll be back any time now.”
“Okay, great,” she said. “Well I'm going to head out and push Maggie on the swing for a bit. Just tell Wyatt that I'm here if you see him.”
“Will do,” Mildred said, with a nod.
Lily turned and headed out to the back yard. To the left was a large swimming pool, complete with two different diving boards at different heights. To the right was Maggie's playground, which was bigger and nicer than any playground Lily had ever played on growing up. It looked like it belonged in a park, not in someone's back yard. It had everything. Three slides, a set of swings, monkey bars and balancing beams. It was everything that a four year old girl could ever want in a playground. Wyatt had even shipped in white sand from some beach, because he said that it was softer and safer than other sand.
“Look at me!” Maggie said, crawling to the top of the playground where a small platform was. In the center of that platform there was a flagpole with a big American flag sticking out of it. Maggie was holding onto the pole and smiling. Lily would have been worried sick to see that child playing at such at high elevation, but luckily there was a safety railing surrounding her.
“You're so high up!” Lily said, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “How did you get up there?”
“I'm a good climber,” Maggie said, proudly. “Want to see me go down the slide?”
“Yes, let's see you do that,” Lily said, smiling.
Lily always felt so good being around Maggie. She suspected that it had something to do with how Maggie saw the world. Everything was still so simple in her life and she saw the beauty and fun in absolutely everything. It made Lily wish that she could still have that childlike curiosity and she often wondered at what point in life that personality trait fades away.
Maggie went down the slide and Lily caught her at the bottom. The two of them laughed and immediately after, Maggie climbed the ladder back up to the top. She went down again, and again, and again. It was as though she had completely limitless energy. She wasn't even out of breath after more than twenty minutes of playing hard like that. That's more than could be said for Lily, too. By the tenth time of catching Maggie at the bottom, Lily was panting in the summer heat.
I'm just glad I wore a summer dress, she thought. At least I'm able to get a little breeze under my clothes to help me cool off.
Lily heard the sound of a car pulling up to the house. She recognized it immediately. It was the deep roar of a Lamborghini. There was no other car that sounded anything remotely like it. She knew for sure that Wyatt had just gotten home.
“Aunt Wiwee, can you push me on the swing again?” Maggie asked, as she sat on the top of the slide.
Lily turned and smiled. “Yes, definitely. Come on.”