Free Silver by Cheree Alsop Page A

okay, Mom. We’re going to be okay.”
    She smiled at me and gave my hand one last
squeeze. Then she sat back and wiped her tears away. “You’re right.
We are going to be okay.” She smiled down at her food and attempted
to set her chopsticks in her hand correctly so she could use them
to eat. They kept slipping until she finally tossed them on the
table and grabbed a fork. “I never could get those right,” she
laughed.
    I waved the chicken I held firmly in my own
chopsticks and she threw a fortune cookie at me. “Show off!”
     
     

Chapter 9
     
    I grabbed my skates by the back door and
pushed it open.
    “ Wait,” Mom called from the
living room.
    I turned reluctantly. “Yeah?”
    She appeared in the kitchen doorway. “You
going out? Isn’t there a curfew or something?”
    I shrugged. “Just to keep the kids out of
trouble. You know me, I’ll be good.” I fought back a smile.
    She caught sight of the skates and her
eyebrows rose. “You’re going roller skating? You haven’t worn those
things for years.”
    “ I have some friends I’m
meeting up with.”
    She looked skeptical, but finally shrugged.
“Okay, just don’t get in trouble. I don’t want to get on a first
name basis with the sheriff like our last town.”
    I grinned and pushed open the sliding door.
She sighed and returned to her book on the couch.
    “ Your mom worries?” Nikki
asked from the darkness of the yard next door.
    I tossed the skates over the back fence and
jumped over after them. “I’ve had kind-of what you might call a
troubled history.”
    She climbed over the fence and gave me a
teasing smile. “Oh, a rebel, huh? My dad warned me to stay away
from those.”
    I glanced at her. “So what are you doing out
here?”
    She smiled, her eyes catching the starlight.
“Being rebellious.”
    I glanced at her skates. She had tied the
laces together and hung them over her shoulder. They were bright
neon pink and sparkled with glitter. I lifted an eyebrow.
    She pushed my shoulder. “I got them when I
was going through a pink phase. All little girls go through
it.”
    I laughed. “How long ago was that, last
year?”
She shook her head. “We better get going, rebel, or we’ll miss out
on the fun."
    We jogged down the aisle between the
fences.
    “ Wow,” I said after a few
minutes.
    She frowned. “What?”
    “ You must have had thumper
feet to fit in those when you were younger.”
    I laughed when she shoved me. “My parents
bought them big so they wouldn’t have to buy a new pair when I grew
out of them.”
    “ I guess they thought the
pink phase would last a while.”
    She grabbed my roller skates before I could
protest. “Let’s see what we can learn from your little skates,
shall we?” She slowed to a walk as she looked them over. “Geesh,
you don’t take care of your stuff.”
    I glanced at the deep grooves cut in the
sides, the scuffed toes and holes where the brake screws should be.
“Let’s just say these have seen a lot of botched dares over their
time.”
    “ No brakes?” she asked
skeptically.
    “ They get in the way,” I
replied with a grin.
    She shook her head and handed them back.
    We walked along in amiable silence until we
reached the mall parking lot. We waited a few minutes and, sure
enough, along came the security guard swinging his nightstick as he
moseyed between the few street lamps that still worked.
    Nikki bent down and took off her shoes.
    “ What are you doing?” I
whispered.
    “ Having a little fun,” she
replied. She looked pointedly at my skates. “Care to join
me?”
    I watched her silently as I took off my
shoes, tied the laces together and hung them over one shoulder,
then pulled on my skates.
    Nikki took off before I was finished. She
skated slowly across the parking lot, weaving between the circles
of light around the street lamps that hadn’t burned out yet. She
got surprisingly close to the security guard before he noticed
her.
    “ Hey, you!” he shouted. He
ran