Kimbies, Curt and I made the walk together.
I was filled with absolute dread.
The day was young and our shadows were long, providing some distractive relief. I looked like a big girl...in my shadows.
My hair was pulled up in an "I dream of Jeanie" pony-tail. The way it swished left and right, through the air, kissing each shoulder with every step I took made me feel... a little magical.
At the curb of our destination, Kimbies grabbed my hand.
I flung her away.
'You have to hold my hand.'
'No.'
'Look at how many kids are in there. I told Mom I would get you safely to your first day of school. I don't want to lose you...so take my hand.'
p a u s e
'...now'
'I don't wanna go.'
'You're going.'
Kimbies grasped my unwilling little hand and dragged me through the gate.
The children inside this gate looked like barbarians...running, yelling, kicking sand, crying. So many kids...none of them buddied up. So many kids...all together, yet all alone.
Kimbies delivered me to a frantic looking woman holding a clipboard.
I watched Kimbies turn and walk towards Curty Boy... who stood just outside the gate.
His eyes like saucers, fore-finger hooked over nose, sucking on his thumb.
I waved to him. He lifted his free hand and gave me a small wave back and then they disappeared.
The lady with the clipboard contended with the unending line of kids.
The kids ran. They screamed. They kicked.
I watched.
'What are you doing?' she asked me.
'I don't know. What am I supposed to do?'
'Go play on the monkey bars or something'
I wandered over to the monkey bars. I climbed the rungs up and looked to the other side & saw a little girl, whom I thought was foaming at the mouth, frantically climb the other side. I waited until she got to the top before I swung out. She got a crazy, Dean Koontz-Highway smile about her fac
e. I trellised my way across & the, her she came.
Normally when I had crossed a kid on the monkey bars, we squeezed right past one another. Not this time.
Her eyes locked with mine.
Her curly head of hair looked like a sprawling clump of tangled seaweed & fishing net, ready to take me in.
The foam at her mouth looked as if she would like to chew on my bones.
And her legs, propelled by her body weight, swung fervently.
I scurried my pads to one side of the bars...
She kicked, growled, swung & snarled her jagged little face at mine.
'What are you doing?'
Spiddle was flying through the air...like her hair and her feet...but no real words.
I wasn't scared...I was shocked.
I could have kicked back.
I could have yelled.
Instead I waited...which seemed to do nothing but further entice this rabid kid.
Sometimes we pick our battles and sometimes they pick us.
Sometimes we just gotta let go.
So I simply let go of those bars.
Feet safely in the sand I looked up & could see her flailing in joy that she had won her little war.
I surveyed my surrounding.
A war zone...an unkempt zoo...a keeping ground for rabid beasts.
I walked out the same way I walked in, less Kimbies hand.
On the walk home, I felt my hair sashaying across my shoulders & began to feel the magic again.
Standing at the stop light, waiting for the light change, I noticed my shadow had grown shorter.
I didn't go home...nope, now on this first day of education.
Instead I went to the Big Old Oak Tree.
I climbed up into it and made my way to the branch that laid a canapy over our brick road...
I laid there all day, soaking up my lessons of the day...
Sometimes we pick our battles & sometimes they pick us.
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