Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters

Author:Damien Angelica Walters
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940430720
Publisher: Curbside Splendor Publishing
Published: 2016-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

The playground was small, nestled at the end of a side street. Alison’s limbs felt heavy, and the thought of her bed held more appeal that they should this time of day, but she didn’t want to go home yet. She was safe; the playground, deserted. The swing, large enough to hold an adult comfortably, creaked as she pumped her legs to get it started. Her hair blew around her face in a tangle of dark. Her neighborhood didn’t have a public playground anymore. Often vandalized, it had been paved over for a convenience store.

Enough time had passed for her fingers to start to cramp around the chains when a high-pitched voice carried through the air. A small boy dressed in a bright red coat entered the park with a woman talking on her cell phone.

Alison dragged her feet in the hollow beneath the swing to bring it to a stop, started to get up, then forced herself to stay put. The child didn’t pay Alison any attention as he ran over to the monkey bars. When another boy and his mother arrived a few minutes later, the latter joining the first child’s mother on a bench off to the side, Alison left the swing behind.

As she crossed the playground on her way out, a little girl came running in her direction and hit her legs with a loud, “Oof.” Alison staggered back to keep her balance.

The girl’s eyes went wide, her mouth formed a small circle, and Alison blinked rapidly as it triggered a memory. Alison in a wheelchair with a nurse pushing her toward the front door of the hospital, and a little girl walking with her mother, and Alison hid her face too late because for one moment, she’d forgotten about her scars, and the little girl stopped and tugged her mother’s hand. “Mommy, what’s wrong with the lady?” Her voice like a beacon, drawing more eyes, and Alison felt them crawling over her like insects, and it wasn’t the little girl’s fault, but they all looked and then they—

A woman with dark hair rushed over. “Becky, say you’re sorry. You almost knocked the lady down.”

Alison tossed her hair and the memory aside. Everything was fine.

“Sorry, lady,” the girl said, her words even and dutiful.

“It’s okay,” Alison said with a smile. “I’m fine. Honestly.”

And she was. If her mouth was dry, if her heart was racing, it was because she’d been on the swing for too long.

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