“Hold out your hands and close your eyes,” Kris told me this afternoon. She’d just returned from a shopping trip. “I have a surprise for you.” I held out my hands and closed my eyes. She gave me a cold plastic package.

I opened my eyes to see she’d bought me a jump rope. “Guess how much this cost,” she said.

“I don’t know. $9?”

“No. It was only $3!” she said, her eyes wide with amazement.

“$3? That’s a bargain,” I said.

“I know,” she said. “I should have bought two.”

I opened the package and took the jump rope outside to test it. I tripped on the first two twirls — I’m old and clumsy. But then I got the hang of bouncing twice. I did a dozen twirls or so and then went back inside the house.

“Ouch,” I said.

“What happened?” Kris asked.

“I pulled a muscle,” I said. “I should have stretched first.”

“Yeah.” Kris said. “It actually says that right on the package.” She was right. It did say so right on the package.

“When I was a kid, I loved to skip rope. I don’t remember ever having to warm up,” I said, rubbing my calf.

“We’re not kids anymore,” muttered Kris. Alas, that is true.

5 Replies to “No Longer Children”

  1. clumsy says:

    Getting old sucks. I twisted my ankle a few week ago and it still hurts. I don’t have those extra strength healing powers anymore.

  2. luneray says:

    hehe…I loved the swings when I was a kid and would swing for hours. Recently I went to a park and swung for about a minute before I felt sick to my stomach and had to quit. Bah.

  3. McAuliflower says:

    I can’t believe how hard it is to jump rope now. 🙁

    Now as in 20 years later…

  4. Tiffany says:

    Hula Hoops are great for stomach muscles, you should try one of those too.

  5. Drew says:

    Courtney tried that hold out your hands and close your eyes thing on me once. I ended up with 2 kids.

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