Skating Through Thanksgiving

Skating Through Thanksgiving

ByJanina Fuller

It was a while before Aida discovered those other possibilities – – like the swimming, dancing, climbing kinds – – because when she wasn’t in school she was always in her skates, always on the ice, always trying new tricks, trying to go faster, testing the limits of physics, geometry, gravity and of her own body. The other kids couldn’t understand…well, the kids at school couldn’t understand, but the kids at the ice rink were just like her, so they became her friends, at least for a few years until some of them got so competitive that their interest in medals outweighed their ability to relate to their peers.

Dancing Leaves
| |

Dancing Leaves

ByJanina Fuller

No doubt the trees have been more relieved than usual to release their leafy burdens this year, and the leaves even moreso to relinquish their duties on behalf of their woody parental stems and trunks. As the truck moved along the road in front of me this morning, keeping to the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit, the leaves covering the road it crossed were ecstatic in the dance that they danced for my eyes only.

In the Exam Room

In the Exam Room

ByJanina Fuller

It took a great deal of cajoling, but finally, at long last, and only with the promise that she could observe his interactions with her son from behind a one-way-window, Jasper convinced her to allow him a few precious moments alone with the little boy. Jasper sat across from him, leaning forward to make sure the boy would both hear him, assuming he could hear, and could read his lips, if indeed the boy had learned to do that by now.

Coloring

Coloring

ByJanina Fuller

Did I color in everything? Some parts of the design are so tiny, which is why I had to actually shave some of the crayons to make the points sharp enough to fit into those teeny-tiny lines. Yeah! Look! Everything is filled in! I really like how that magenta and blue look together, and I have to say the other colors are great where I put them… can’t believe I didn’t think this would be fun when Dolores gave me this set of crayons and the book last night when she was here during visiting hours. Dolores, I’m sorry, I should’ve been more gracious when I said thank you. Wait. Did I say thank you?

The Rope

The Rope

ByJanina Fuller

“I can’t let go!” she cried, squeezing even harder with her knees, calves and crossed ankles. “I don’t know how!” The rope was scratching the insides of her legs but the pain went unnoticed as her legs clasped themselves even tighter to each other while the trees around her swung by. There was a sudden realization at the corner of her awareness that this must be what the world looked like to daddy when he was drinking. Her fingers hurt. They’d been squeezing too, up against her chest and around the rope that was smooth there, worn down by decades of young hands like hers having the rope in their grip.

JB2

JB2

ByJanina Fuller

The view from the top of Half Dome was just as spectacular as I knew it would be … and just as familiar. Kind of like coming home, really, to see the valley nearly 9,000 feet below, with its ancient glacial cut extending northeastward up Tenaya Canyon and El Capitan at the opposite end of the valley to the west; rolling mountaintops hiding fields and forests on the horizon opposite my granite perch. At 9:00 in the morning the sun warmed my back while I gazed into the distance, remembering Jossman Burrell and letting him know I’d finally made it. As I hoisted my backpack to pull out the notebook I felt the weight of the box containing his ashes. Two years Grampa Joss had been waiting for me to bring him back to this place that held his heart and soul.