Category: Life’s Challenges

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I stopped being afraid

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time to let go

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Summer Vacation.

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Who Needs a Third Wheel?

Lessons learned while blading along the St. Lawrence River at 8 a.m.

1. You CAN skate six kilometres on a three-wheeled-rollerblade and make it homes safely in one piece.

2. You CAN NOT trust the 18-year-old in the sports store when he says, ‘I can put the new wheels on for you, no problem!”

Yes, there I am, skating along at 15/km an hour —I know this because one of those digital speeding signs on the side of the road clocked me in la belle langue:  Votre Vitesse: 15 —and my wheel starts to fall off. It’s a bumpy ride to the curb, but I manage to make it without a scrape.

I just know my parents are cringing as they read this (The good news, Mum and Dad, is I had a helmet on, and no music in my ears!)

Anyone happen to have a couple spare inline skate wheel screws? No idea where they fell off. I did backtrack four or five kilometres on my three wheeled skate, but wasn’t sure about the shape of my *other* wheels at this point, so I headed home.

I asked you in the introduction to Carry On Dancing to please join me on my small adventures. Perhaps, just for today, you should stay away from me and my adventures!

Have a great day everyone, and play safe.

Heather

The third wheel before it came off – I wish I’d noticed the screw was loose
when I was taking this photo! Copyright HGS 2012
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Poet Rachel Bentham

Quaking. (New Zealand.)

The glasses clinked on their shelves,
a sign we recognised. Unperturbed,
I moved to the kitchen doorway –
doorways were supposed safer,
the frying pan still in my hand.

The floor shook as scales shake
when you weigh yourself, an
insecurity underfoot. But it didn’t
stop. The shake became a roll,
a house beginning to canter.

My father at the head of the
dining table, rose slowly to
his feet. I saw his hands grip
the table edge. ‘In a minute
I’m going to be frightened.’

And I knew he already was,
from the colour of his knuckles.


Rachel Bentham is an award-winning internationally published poet and novelist from Bristol, England. She lives there with her four children, and is “rarely bored.”
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