Happy Thanksgiving. I am actually up before anyone else so I am going to take the time to do the morning prompts and settle my brains before I start on the turkey. It is a 19 lbs one this year cause we have a full house. So on we go.
I think I might have to think about this before I decide how I feel. For now, I’m off to make turkey.
Thursday, November 23rd: He laced the roller skates on.
He laced his roller skates on. How long had it been since he wore them? He couldn’t remember. But as his skates had four wheels instead of a row of wheels in the center of his foot, he knew it had been a while. He knew that his skates were no longer standard and that he would more than likely take some ribbing for his old school kit, but as he wasn’t terribly certain of his balance with four balanced wheels, he wasn’t about to try out the single line. They reminded him of ice skates too much and his luck with those was never good.
With the skates on, he stood, using the arm of the bench for support. He was in his back yard on the concrete of his patio. It was a small space and he figured that if his balance was too far off he could pitch himself into the grass. It also had the benefit of being located away from the eyes of his neighbors.
He wanted to practice before going to the roller rink but he wasn’t so keen on having anyone see his practice. He imagined he would look like a fish out of water, or a featherless bird in distress as he flapped his arms around trying to maintain balance.
The truth was that while his balance wasn’t bad, he preferred to move through the world at a slow and steady pace. He had a car and when on the road drove at speed, but he walked to work each morning and was close enough to walk to the grocery store as well. There were errands he could not accomplish by foot and the public transit system here was virtually non-existent which is why he had the car, but in general he drove once a month at best. What he couldn’t pick up while walking, he tended to order and have delivered.
He found it better to leave the fast moving people to do the fast moving. He liked to have the time to absorb his surroundings and take in the details. Putting on roller skates made him move far faster than he wanted. It was the speed he wanted to grow accustomed to more than the balance.
‘Although I will still look like a fish out of water,’ he decided, reminding himself to keep his mouth shut and breath through his nose. On most days he didn’t breathe through his mouth much. Somehow when on skates he found his mouth opening as he drew in deep breaths.
‘Mouth closed and glide,’ he told himself as he moved in a circle around the patio. He managed that much by the first few laps and then he concentrated on keeping his arms down instead of pinwheeling out and flapping through the air.
Once he had his body movements down, he started looking around him, trying to make the pace seem normal, to practice taking in the details at speed. It was the thought of not seeing something, of missing a detail that made him want to slow down.
Ten til Midnight 