Jump Rope

Shannon, I knew her in middle school friends caught somewhere between being children, pre-teen adults. We jumped with a wooden handled rope across the stage in Tom Sawyer. 1890's leather and petticoats galloping and swishing against exposed pale thin knobbed ankles. Crossed stage right to stage left, cued when Tom and Becky kissed. Growing shannon learned to kiss dangerous exciting men. Coccaine and Vodka replaced petticoats and plays. I heard years later of the haunted whispers of such a childs fate. Death stole her at the age of twenty after nightly slaps - screams from one of her immoral un-ingenues. Shannon Stopped. Stopped skipping, laughing, playing, acting. She hung herself from a rusty fire escape in a little city alley with the same wooden handled jump rope at midnight in march's icy rain.