Recess

Marvin~

“Red Rover, Red Rover, send Carley right over!” we cried as Carley turned loose of her classmates and ran like the devil himself was after her as she tried to break through our linked hands that were squished tightly together to try and keep her from breaking through and taking one of our team back to her side. My hands were sweaty and she headed right towards me! Dang! She grabbed my shirt and pulled me over to her side of the playground. I really didn’t mind since I was a little sweet on Carley and I think maybe she was a little sweet on me. But there was no way I would let my buddies find out that I had a girlfriend. They thought that stuff was all icky! So the nearest thing I could do was to hold Carley’s hand in the game of Red Rover…and dream and hope.

Jennifer~

She just thought she was SO smart and pretty with her red hair bobbing and waving as she ran towards Marvin. I hated Carley! I loved Marvin… well, I think I do, anyway. My mamma reads those romance books and leaves them laying around the house and I slip them into my room and ready them, or try to. Some of the words are hard and some of the thing they talk about, I really don’t understand. But all I know is my face gets red when Marvin looks at me and I just want him to kiss me. But Carley will not leave him alone and I am just too bashful to let him know my bosom heaves for him as my Mamma’s book says, whatever that means. So I’ll just let them play Red Rover as I look for someone to see saw with me. Not the fat kid, Willie, he would bump me over the see saw like he does every kid on the playground.

Max~

“What do you mean you are too scared to try and wrap your swing around the top by swinging high?” Paul was such a cry baby. Me? If there was only a way I could get my swing to wrap around and around the bar, it would be so awesome! But until I find a way to do that, I will just have to settle for swinging high and jumping out and hope I don’t get caught by teacher. Me and Paul were twins but you’d never know it. He was a scaredy cat, but me, I was the brave one of the family. I was always the one with scrapes and cuts and bruises. Paul, he was always clean and reading a book. Me and Willie were the kings of the playground, me because I was smart and Willie, because he was big and the other kids were afraid of him. That’s why I keep him as a friend, he was like my guard. Together, we rule the swings, the see saws and the monkey bars! 

Carley~

Marvin was the boy my daddy had been when he was young according to the stories he would tell me about when he was young. The best runner. The smartest in class. Just the best in everything he did, just like my daddy. I got my red hair from my daddy he tells me every day as he brushes it for me before school. Its one of my most favorite times of the day as I sit still in front of the mirror and he brushes my hair ever since my mom died. It’s just me and my daddy, and one day maybe Marvin will be my husband and he can live with us too. Marvin and me, we have a secret handshake so the other kids will not know how we like each other because they would tease us and sing “Carley and Marvin sitting in a tree” and I would just die of embarrassment. So me and Marvin, we’ll just keep on with our secret handshakes until the day we get married and he lives with me and daddy.

Willie~

I am sad. I am lonely. I am fat so no one wants me to play with them or picks me for their team, or be the other end of the see saw. My only friend is Max, but I’m not so sure he is really a friend. I think he just uses me cause I am big and the other kids are scared that I’ll hurt them. But I will take that cause I am all alone. I have been held back in school for two years. My teacher says its because I do not apply myself. Well, I don’t because then I would have to step out of the shadow of my self and I never want to get the attention. The fat kid that everyone watches. No, I’ll just be me and stay behind in school and probably in life as my grandma says almost daily. My ma and pa died when I was little and my grandma and me, well, we get by with the help from the Methodist Church Ladies Guild. Christmas and birthdays, I could always count on a little “something” from the guild. But that’s OK because one day, I’ll run away and join the circus and then my grandma will be better off not having to put up with me…cause I’m fat.

Teacher~

“Lord, where has the time gone?” I asked myself as I looked at my watch. Recess nearly over for another day and here I sit watching all these kids with their innocent dreams and hopes running and playing with not a care in the world. Just wait until they get to be adults and have to deal with a job and a family and bills and just life in general. That thought kills my spirit almost every waking moment of my day. Life, who needs it. You know Willie confided in me once that he planned to run away and join the circus. Maybe he wouldn’t mind if I joined him in the three rings of make believe. “Kids, it’s time to go in!” I bellowed after I blew the whistle I had been given when I became the teacher last year. “Ah, it’s too soon, just a little longer…” I heard as they began to line up to go back inside. We marched single file back towards the class. As I looked back to see if they were all there, I just happened to notice the playground. Swings still swinging in the breeze, see saws coming to a rest and what was once noisy from the kids was now soundless except for a faint sound of an owl…. “whooooo?”….. it seemed to be asking. I looked at my kids and thought to myself…“Us” as we faded away until recess tomorrow…

Alabama’s Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville has a children’s playground off in the trees of the final resting place of many a story no longer with us. People say that some of the stories may not be completely finished since it appears that recess may be held daily between the hours of 10 PM AND 3 AM when swings may sway and children’s laughter may be heard. If you listen closely, you may hear “Red Rover” whispered in the wind or the smell of circus peanuts where Willie made it to the circus…