Page 11 of Chloe

“Thanks so much,” she told him.

He watched the wheels moving in her mind as she tried to figure out how to get up with the skates on.

Finally, she rolled to her side and went up on her knees. Sticking her arms out straight to the sides, like she was pretending to be an airplane, she lifted one leg and placed her foot on the ground in front of her.

Next, she tried shifting her weight onto that foot, in order to get the other one up.

But the first foot went out from under her, and she landed on her bottom.

“You see,” she said pointedly to him, as if he hadn’t believed her. “I can’t even get up.”

“Are you asking for help?” he asked, not moving toward her.

“Yes,” she replied in a very small voice.

He laughed in spite of himself and strode over to her.

“Okay,” he said. “You had the right idea to go up on one knee and then the other. But you have to focus your eyes on the horizon and move quickly, with your weight balanced. Try again for me, so I can see you understand. Then I’ll help if you still need help.”

“Okay,” she said.

There was a look of pure determination on her face as she made her second attempt. This time, she got her second foot under herself and fell backward onto her bottom at the last minute.

“Good,” he told her. “Until you choked at the last minute. I’ll help you now.”

But she held her hand up and shook her head.

“I want to do it myself,” she said stubbornly.

He watched as she gave it a third try.

By some miracle, she managed to get all the way up. Her face broke into that sunny smile he was already starting to like so much as she stood stock-still, like she was afraid the merest breeze might knock her down.

“Good,” he told her. “Excellent. Go ahead and get comfortable. I’m just going to put mine on.”

He grabbed his box and settled down on the grass again to put them on. They were really nice skates, much better than his sister’s cast-offs that he’d worn as a kid.

Like he did every time he saw something that made him think of her, he had an instinct to snap a pic for Charlie and send her a message.

Sadness crushed his lungs again, as his heart caught up to the news his mind already knew.

Charlie was gone, really gone. He would never send her another picture. She would never tease him until his stomach ached from laughing. The memories were all he had left.

As he pulled the laces tight, he thought back to trying to keep up with her on skates when he was about five, which would have made her nine or so.

He could still see the sunlight sparkling on the metal chains in her horns, her dark hair flowing out behind her.

Just when he’d thought he would never catch her, she would stop and turn to him, cackling her head off as she imitated his exaggerated arm swinging.

“You okay?” Chloe asked.

It was an awfully rich question coming from someone who looked like she was in imminent danger of falling on her ass for the third time in two minutes.

“Yeah,” he said, leaping to his feet.

“Hey,” she said. “You didn’t go on your knees first.”

“I’m a little more experienced, babe,” he told her, raising his eyebrows in an exaggerated waggle.

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