Free Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini

she’d lost her mind.
    â€œPlease?” Michael looked almost desperate. “I’ll get my homework done, no problem. I’ll even show it to you.”
    She feigned reluctance and said, “We’ll see.” Michael nodded, but his brow furrowed in determination, as if his mind was already working on how to change that “We’ll see” to “Yes.” For years she’d urged him to get involved in school activities, and he had countered every effort with resistance. Now he would do everything short of begging to be permitted to join, and since he’d had to work for the privilege, he would become the computer club’s most enthusiastic member. Maybe he would even become their president, and wouldn’t that besomething to mention to Mary Beth from next door, who practically sent out daily press releases about her kids’ achievements.
    She gave Tim the tiniest flicker of a triumphant smile when she was certain Michael wouldn’t notice. Tim hid his grin, but he couldn’t mask the admiration in his eyes.
    On Thursday evening the mood shifted. Tim and Michael had exhausted the local possibilities and weren’t sure where to look next. “You’ll think of something,” Diane told them, disguising her concern behind a cheerful smile. Without skateboarding, there would be no friends, no computer club, no motivation to do homework, no inside jokes with his dad. Michael would revert back to his old, practiced ways, she was sure of it.
    The next afternoon, the Elm Creek Quilters held a business meeting during the campers’ free time after Agnes’s workshop, so Diane headed home later than usual. Todd would be finishing his homework already, and Tim and Michael would be continuing their search. She hoped their luck would change, and soon.
    To her surprise, Tim’s car was in the garage when she got home. She pulled in beside it, wondering. Had they found a place for Michael, and was he even now spinning around and popping wheelies or whatever those tricks were called? Had they been forced to admit failure, and was Michael sulking up in his room while Tim paced around the house trying to figure out how to tell her? She got out of the car and leaned up against the door to close it, nervousness twisting in her stomach. She couldn’t stay out there forever, she told herself, but she could delay the bad news a while.
    Then she heard strange sounds coming from somewhere outside the garage. She walked down the driveway, listening, until she realized the noise was coming from behind her own house. It almost sounded as if the woods abutting their property had been turned into a construction site. She went around the side of the house and found Tim and Michael at the far edge of the backyard with all manner of building supplies and tools piled up on the grass around them.
    She was almost afraid to know, but she approached them and askedwhat they were doing. They looked up from their work with nearly identical happy grins. “Dad’s building me a ramp,” Michael exclaimed. “Isn’t this cool?”
    â€œThat’s one way to describe it.” She folded her arms and surveyed the damage to the lawn. They had enough material there for a small house. “Are you sure you don’t need a building permit?”
    Michael laughed and returned to his work.
    She fixed her gaze on Tim, who was kneeling on the grass and sanding a board. “You know, for some reason I can’t remember the conversation where you told me you were going to build a skateboard ramp in our backyard. I must have forgotten it, because I know you wouldn’t begin a project like this without talking to me first.”
    He gave her a look that was both pleading and sheepish. “Honey, we looked everywhere. Every suitable place was off-limits. The only solution was to build our own place.”
    â€œMaybe I would have come to the same conclusion, if I had been