I burst through the metal doors into the sunlight. There were four or five or six or seven of us, depending on the day of the week, depending on our behavior during lunch, depending... And we were FREE! Free for thirty minutes. Free to run directly to the jungle gym and not look back.
This day there may have been five of us, or just two of us, or just me. I don't remember. Because I climbed to the top of my favorite set of climbing bars, and sat on the top bar, hooking my sneakers beneath the second-to-the-top bar. I swung my head down and SKY.
Sky all around me. I was floating in it. I was only shakily hanging to the earth by my new sneakers. (And you don't know if you can trust new sneakers.) And when sky is on at least three sides of you, maybe all four, gravity itself seems to be only on the verge of loosening its grip ever so slightly. And with the gentlest breeze I was sure I would begin to float away: away, away. Sailing over surprised teachers and friends and Fairview Elementary, and Fairview Avenue, and all of Waynesboro. I would reach just past the YMCA on the other side of town before I would begin to feel very lonely.
So I swung my head upward and lifted myself to the top bar of the jungle gym again.
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