Persistent
Ashley Campbell
We’re walking to the playground. Not the playground at the front of the lake but, the one in the back. The one with squeaky slides, splinter giving bark and rough gray callous-giving monkey bars. We approach the playground, Daniel running straight for the bars.
Five-years-old.
I’m alone standing on my grandparents’ spring-loaded trampoline. I’ve jumped on this trampoline many times before, but never by myself. It feels good to jump freely with no cumbersome cousins around to steal my bounces. They have all gone inside for lunch, but not me, I stayed in the yard. I stayed with the trampoline.
My bare feet hit the black fabric and I go bouncing into the air. I think of all my bulky older cousins in the house eating their PB and J’s, and me enjoying the trampoline alone. The monkey bars six feet away catch my attention and images of my cousins flinging themselves off the tramp and onto the bars crowd my mind.
I bet I could do that.
I bounce and bounce and then throw my body towards the bars, hands out stretched. I sail through the air, my tiny hands grip the rough metal bars and I swing to a stop.
I made it.
I monkey across, climb down the ladder and run back to the trampoline. After a few bounces I jump off arms outstretched once more, but this time something is different. My fingertips scrape the bars and my body is pulled down to the hard dirt below. I have no breath and my right arm feels hot with pain.
Fifth grade recess.
Sean is being a jerk and won’t let me play tag with him and his dumb friends. I didn’t really want to play with them anyway. I walk over to the jungle gym. Boys are so stupid. My size five feet carry me over to and up the ladder, stopping on the second tier where the monkey bars start.
I look at them for a while, the peeling yellow paint, before I begin the passage across.
I skip every other one as I go. It is too easy for a fifth grader such as myself. I stretch my arm to the last bar but, before I grab it my other hand slips and everything goes in slow motion. Sean and his buddies running across the soccer field, the third graders crossing the bridge, and the girl with blonde braids staring at me from the other side of the set. My left arm hits the platform where the girl is standing and then time speeds up. My body smacks itself into the sand.
I stand up, confused, clutching my left arm to my chest, I can feel my face turning red and the tears forming behind eyes. “Teacher!” Her eyes grow big as she looks at me. She leads me to the office, tears rolling down my checks. “Do you know your phone number?”
A new school.
My cousin goes to this school too, it’s not so bad. It’s a cool morning and we’re standing on the concert perimeter of the jungle gym, waiting for the bell to ring to commence class. “Do you wanna see something cool?”
She climbs up the single bars as I watch from the sideline following her movements. She stands balanced on the beam and hurls herself off towards the monkey bars grabbing the sides and swinging for a few seconds before she finally drops and runs back to me. She gives me that look she always gives me when she wants me to do something. I understand I cannot say no. I climb up to the beam, wobbling as I scoot to the middle mimicking her. The bars are right in front of me. I stare at them. I launch myself towards the monkey bars and reach out to grab the side. This isn’t that cool, Emerald.
My fingers slip off as if coated in butter. I hit the ground and everything goes black.
I open my eyes and Emerald is standing over me, her mouth is moving but all I can hear is my gasps for breath. I want to breathe, suck in some air, but it’s not that easy. Emerald puts my arm over her shoulder and seizes my waist. I gasp for air and stumble towards the office.
“Daniel!” I rush towards my littlest brother. “I bet I can beat you across!”
