Issuu

The Night Shift He had always known that his Mom was a stubborn one. When he was about 7 years old, he wanted to try skateboarding. She hadn’t thought it would be a good idea, and so she tried to scare him with horror stories of people falling, scraping all of their limbs, and being run over by other skateboarders who were so desperate to land tricks that they didn’t notice a little boy crumpled on the floor. Though this succeeded in scaring him, it still didn’t completely dash his desire to skateboard. So, on Christmas, he ran down the stairs and tore through his small selection of presents to find a long, thin rectangular one. He shook it and it barely moved around in his wrapping. It was, in fact, a used skateboard, and he was absolutely over-the-moon about it. The very next day, they went to the skate park to try it out. He stepped on the board, trying to find his balance, and instantly face-planted into the ground. He felt the unforgiving concrete scrape into his exposed palms and knees. It was like thousands of little fires were burning and stabbing at his skin. He screamed and began crying, but his Mom made no move from her spot on the bench. He yelled to her, “Mom! Help! It hurts”. She looked away from him. Eventually, he managed to get up, and stumbled over to her bench where she still hadn’t moved an inch. “I fell,” he stated. “I know,” she replied. “Then why didn’t you help me up?” “Well, I told you that you would fall and hurt yourself, didn’t I?” He was much older now. Though he had never tried skateboarding again, he had embarked on many other adventures in life. He got into a good enough college out of state, and decided early on to study business. Even though he loved examining ancient art works and learning about their original cultures, an interest picked up from visiting his mom’s work, he knew he could never support himself off that kind of salary. At least, not in the way he wanted. So instead he studied business, and when he graduated he got a job in finance in Rome. That way, he could at least be surrounded by the arts and culture wherever he went. He felt bad at first for leaving his Mom behind. She had no other family in New York anymore, after his Dad had left them both when he was a toddler, and she had given up so much so he never had to want for anything more: love, money, or her time. That even meant getting a job during the night shift so she would be there when he woke up and when he got back from school. Still, he knew he had to leave. It would suffocate him otherwise. At first, he tried to convince her to move with him, but she always refused. Said she had moved enough in her life to know when she had put 30 / VLR