We Went To Different Schools Together

We went to different schools… together walked on opposite sides of a street that constituted an invisible border. There were differences…..but not really. We walked slowly, as if to spend time together, assessing the others clothing, shoes, gait. Eye contact was forbidden as we had been warned…..about them as they….about us. Smiles were fleeting sorties into danger. We found, as children do, ways to challenge the guardians a quickened pace….leading to a foot race….a breaking from the norm, a joyously shared connection of shouts and flashing glances. I am not sure who won the “race”, I think we all did…us kids….truants in the school of ancestral fears, breaking the barrier of a paved border streaking toward the finish line stretched between two churches. John G. Lawless ©9/12/2019