Key Skates

Saturday at the roller rink, waiting for a chance to skate with the boy you want to hold your hand. A love song plays, there’s a disco ball. Thirteen, 1975, you do what all the girls do: fake helplessness lest boys think you unladylike. Weekdays, alone after school, you fly down the steep concrete sidewalk, knees and hands scraped from falls, the metal skates so hard to adjust. When you see the boy skating toward you, hardly balanced himself, you hold up your hand—halt!—and ask him if he has a key. You’ve been asking ever since.

Photo credit: Red Bat

2 Responses to “Key Skates”

1. Fred Longworth says:

   October 7, 2015 at 1:23 am

   This has a particularly good close.

   Reply
2. Tony Press says:

   September 27, 2015 at 8:35 pm

   Oh, I do like this one.

   Reply