Growing Up

“Come on!” He is running too far ahead of me to reach. “Hurry up before they close it off! It’s so cool!” The boy was weaving through a parking lot. We pass a sign that reads “HARD HATS REQUIRED PAST THIS POINT”. He runs past a Rent-A-Cop that yelled after him. As I ran past the uniformed man, I muttered an apology and promised I would try and get the boy out of the construction site.

There was a second boundary inside the site. A fenced off portion where active machinery was being used. The boy ducked through the wide space between bars and taunted the men that had to push machinery out of the way to keep from hurting the boy.

I was a kid myself, the boy was my friend, but I chose not to cross the fence with him. The kid managed to run face first into a long fossil tusk as it was being lifted into place above a door. He bounded off the fossil and hit the dirt, but quickly got back up. None of the workers offered to help. They all told him exactly what they thought however.

I placed my face in my hands in dismay, and surrendered to the notion I would have to rescue him, again. I ran in to drag him out. The construction workers yelled at him but made no effort to stop him. I caught up with him as he was climbing on the scaffolding around the door, where more fossils would be lashed.

I yelled at him to come down. He refused. I pointed out his face was covered in blood. He was excited about that because that meant stitches. I told him he was getting in the workers’ way. He didn’t give a fuck. He can go where he pleases and do what he pleases because he can and he will.

“I’m done chasing after you. Every where we go, you’re starting shit and I’m cleaning it up. You’re pissing people off and I’m making apologies. You’re breaking things and I’m paying for it. I’m done with you. Your freedom is bought with my servitude. I won’t clean up after you anymore. Whatever you start, you finish. Whatever you deserve, falls on your head now, not mine.”

As I speak, I’m growing up. I started about 8 years old, same as him. But as I spoke, I grew taller and older. My street rags changed as I matured, becoming clean shirt, jeans, and shoes that fit well.

The kid laughed at me at first. “You always say you’ll leave me, but you never do.” But as I matured before his eyes, he started to worry. When I finished speaking, I turned to leave the site.

“Hey! Wait!” I didn’t stop. I kept walking away. I hear him climb higher behind me. “If you don’t come back, I’ll jump! I mean it!” The construction workers watch idly. “Hey! HEY! You! Girl! You… I don’t know your name… You can’t leave me… ”

I turn back to look, curious to see if the boy would follow me as I had always followed him. The workers have sent a guy up the scaffolding to get the boy. He’s clinging tightly to the frame, crying. “I don’t know how to take care of myself. You always took care of me.”

I turn away for the last time and as an adult, walk off the construction site, leaving the dream and waking up.