Wednesday 29 August 2012




The green leaves tinged with the first yellows of autumn. Shaded by the elm’s branches were an ivy-covered footpath and a wooden bench upon which it was to wait. The bench itself was half covered with ivy as they seemed an inviting place to rest. Next to the bench was a skate park, crammed with people trying to squeeze through an empty ramp to do dance upon their board. The lights reflection from the skin of each ramp would bring pain to most skaters.

I lumbered gleefully through the almost palpable fog into a colossal, dim-lit indoor skate park grasping my mint chocolate-chip Cold Stone ice cream in one hand. The millions of skaters wheeled smoothly through slim openings of the nicely polished floors with absolute confidence even though there was a great chance of smashing into someone. Every sunday, I waited for my cousin who was always busy teaching the beginners to finish his work. While licking on my ice cream, I noticed my face brightening up with a smile- not because my cousin was back nor that I got to the cone part of my ice cream, it was the boy with the familiar blue cookie monster skateboard hat. Wearing a velvet baggy threadbare jacket, he caught a glimpse of me with his olive green eyes which got magnified by the large, black rimmed glasses. Still a long way from the cone part of my delicious treat, I stood in the same spot, staring at the cookie monster hat like a paralyzed monkey. I don’t know how but the boy sensed that I was staring at him and came over to see if I was okay. I really thought he was going to do something nice. He came rushing at me like a terrorized cow who ate bad grass in the morning. He knocked my ice cream off and winked at me and whizzed past, the cookie monster still staring at me. I was terrified.