Friends & Belonging
The Other Swing
The swing frame has three seats. Two matching black ones hang side by side, chains exactly the same length. The third is an old lopsided ring on the end. One chain is half a link short, so it swings to its own wonky beat. Nobody ever picks it first. Nobody.
Every morning recess, the bell rings and Finn and Poppy race for the two matching swings. Always them. Always those two seats. Ever since pre-K. Whoever gets there first holds the other swing still with one hand until the other one arrives.
Today, the zipper on Finn’s gym bag jammed on the way out. The little metal tab stuck sideways in the teeth. Grrr. He wiggled it free with both thumbs while the hallway emptied around him. By the time he got outside, the bell had rung ages ago.
When Finn reached the frame, both matching swings were already going, high and level, perfectly in time. Whoosh. Whoosh. Poppy was on her usual one. And Ezra was on the other one. Finn’s one. Laughing at something Finn hadn’t heard the start of.
The third swing hung where it always hung, at the very end, rocking a little in the wind. Its wonky seat was empty. It was always empty. Today it was the only one that still was.
Finn stood at the edge of the blacktop, hands in his pockets. He didn’t call out. He didn’t go closer. He just watched the two swings go up and down together. Ten whole seconds. Poppy didn’t look over. Ezra didn’t look over. Not once.
Poppy laughed at something Ezra said and kicked her swing higher. Finn was still at the edge. And neither of them had noticed him yet.
What does Finn do?
Every choice costs something. Let’s see what.
Call out and ask for a turn
“Hey! Can I have a turn?” It came out flat and sudden. Poppy dragged her feet through the wood chips, scrrrrrape, to slow down. Ezra’s swing lost the beat too, swinging just a little out of step with hers.
“Oh! Sure, hang on,” said Poppy. Ezra pumped his legs a few more times, creak, creak, then let his swing run down by itself. He hopped off and wandered toward the jungle gym, already looking somewhere else. The black swing next to Poppy was empty. Still swinging a little, all on its own.
“Same time?” Poppy called, and counted out loud so Finn could catch her beat. One, two. One, two. For three or four swings, it worked. Then his swing slid half a beat behind hers again. Neither of them mentioned it.
Near the end of recess, Finn and Poppy were swinging side by side, both a bit out of breath, close but never quite lined up. Across the playground, Ezra was hanging upside down on the jungle gym, not looking their way at all.
The bell rang. Poppy dragged her sneakers through the bark to stop. “Same time tomorrow?” she said, already sliding off. “Same time,” said Finn, and slid off too. All the way in, he was counting under his breath. One, two. One, two.
Take the other swing and stay quiet
Finn climbed onto the other swing without a word. The lopsided ring was cold under his hands. He pushed off, and right away it found its own beat, half a step out of time with the other two. Just like always.
A few minutes later Poppy glanced over and gave Finn a quick wave, still in the middle of a sentence to Ezra. Then she turned back to Ezra. It was the kind of wave you give someone who is already there.
Near the end of recess, Finn was still on the other swing. Up, and back. Up, and back. Close enough to hear bits of what Poppy and Ezra were saying, something about a cat, something about a sandwich, but never the beginning. And never the end.
The bell rang. Poppy and Ezra hopped off together and ran for the door, still talking. Finn dragged his sneakers through the bark to stop the wonky swing. The short chain kept twisting him sideways, so it took three tries. On the third try it stopped dead, perfectly still. Finn was probably the only person in the whole school who knew how to do that.
Walk away and find something else
Finn turned and walked away across the blacktop, away from the swings, without a word to either of them. He didn’t look back to see if anybody had noticed him go.
At the jungle gym, Dev from his class was already halfway up. “Race you!” said Finn, and started climbing. And for a while, the swings weren’t what he was thinking about. Not even a bit.
Hanging upside down from the top bar, Finn could just see the swings out of the corner of his eye, still going on the far side of the playground. Too far away now to tell who was on which one.
The bell rang while Finn was still climbing, one hand on the bar, one foot feeling for the next rung. He dropped down and jogged in with everyone else, right past Poppy and Ezra. Nobody asked where he’d been, and he didn’t say. Not yet. His hands smelled like the metal bars. And once, just once, he’d gotten to the top before Dev.