Golden Gates.

I was looking at Malachy; his scrawny little legs swishing back and forth as he balanced himself on the unstable piece of wood. Every time I would hit the ground he would scream with pleasure as he would quickly rise towards the sky, he looked happy, it was his first time on a seesaw, now that I think of it, it was my first time too. It wasn’t a very pleasurable game, my ass was starting to hurt after hitting the ground so many times and my legs were starting to get tired from pushing off of the ground supporting Malachy’s weight but he seemed to like it and it kept him quiet so I kept pushing off the dusty ground making my shoes filthier by the minute. Around him the trees on Classon Avenue were beautiful, it was between warm and cold weather and they were in the middle of changing colors. Burnt orange and brown colors flooded the floors and few people were sitting on the brisk park benches leaving the park practically deserted for me and Malachy, I turned to my right and saw a swing set, a small slide and a sand box filled with dirty water, black sand and fallen leaves. The seesaw was coming to a decent, I decided to jump off and try the swing set forgetting that Malachy was on the other side of the seesaw, as I slowly turned my head to the side I saw Malachy screech a horrible sound as blood seeped through his fingers as he covered his mouth, the sight was horrid. I had never seen blood before and it wasn’t something I planned on seeing again. I was confused; I didn’t know what to do there was so much blood everywhere. Mother was going to have a fit when she saw that his fresh blood had dripped on to his new crispy clean white shirt. Some blood contoured his body and landed on the old rotten wood of the seesaw, leaving its mark on the wood for an eternity. Next time we come back to this park I’ll have to make sure if Malachy’s blood was still in the seesaw. I quickly turn in all directions looking for help when I spot mother running towards us with a stern expression on her face and her eyes darting between me Malachy and the seesaw, yet they rest on me with anger. She finally arrives to the crime scene huffing and puffing and grabs me by the arm telling me to get, her fingers leave a red mark on my arm as I scurry off towards the old metal gate ten times my size. The gate has big bold golden letters on the top it says Classon Avenue Park, I wonder if the letters were made out of solid gold… If so maybe I should take one to bring back home for Malachy as a present. The black paint is chipped off from the metal gates in certain places and the hinges needed to be oiled I thought as I opened the gate with a loud creak. I run two blocks to my building making sure to keep my head up like pa says. Pa says that if you keep your head up you look loud and proud and nobody will bother you. Once I got to our building I looked up, the building was quite tall and old, it almost looked like any moment now it could collapse. Clothes lines were strung from building to building exposing different colors of fabrics in the air we could even see Mr. Hathaway’s underpants! I scrambled by a few people to get to the main entrance when I saw my father’s friend, Mr. MacAdorey staring at the gutters with his wife. I bent over and finally saw what all the commotion was about there was a dead doggy in the gutter! The dog’s blood matched Malachy’s blood and I wondered what a coincidence that they were both bleeding at the same time, I scurried up the stairs to our building and said hello to Janice and Eunice who were drawing on the steps with sharp rocks. Once at the door I rang three times on our floor that was our secret signal that’s what mother said. I heard shuffling down the stairs and someone struggling with the locks, when the door opened my father was looking down at me with disappointment the creases in his forehead making four straight lines and the mouth was curved slightly on the right side, and I knew right there someone had already told him about Malachy.