Mike stood at the top of the concrete stairway. A warm night’s breeze snaked around his legs. He contemplated the railing. It was low enough. He could make it up there. He nervously tapped the tail of his skateboard with his foot. There was a lot of stairs to make it down.
The others, bored with Mike’s hesitance at the railing, harassed a passing bum. “Go on home and suck on your momma’s titties!” the bum said, provoking laughter from the boys. The kids didn’t know how young they were. The bum did.
He pointed accusatorially at Mike. “You gonna work in this damn building! Then YOU gonna run the kids off! Got it so safe now it’s gonna be easy to give up. You won’t even know you doing it.”
The metal ding and scraping sound of Mike’s board grinding down the rail echoed against the empty downtown buildings.
