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42.85% The Gods Above / Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Youth In Flight, Part 2

Bab 12: Chapter 12: Youth In Flight, Part 2

"You hurt, young man?" an elderly woman leaned over to peer at him. "What were you doing?"

"He tried something and fell," Pranthi said. "Just needs to catch his breath."

The kid started laughing, so the old woman walked on. He rolled to his feet with an ease that made Pranthi's hand tighten with envy. He sat down beside her and rubbed his knee.

"Sad day when I'm being fussed over by an old lady and a cripple," he said. "You aren't going to bust me?"

"Why should I? You appear to be working on busting yourself."

"I mean, I tried to grab your sh..." he stopped himself. "Most people would be calling the cops already."

"When I was a child," Pranthi said, "I stole food for my family."

"How did you escape with those..." he pointed at the leg braces.

"They came later," Pranthi said. "I was fastest on my block, no one could catch me. Mother felt begging was more honorable than stealing so..." she shrugged and handed the skateboard back. "You may call me Pranthi. I'm more likely to answer then if you yell 'effing cripple'."

The kid turned a deep red and twisted the board around.

"I'm Jack. Look, I'm sorry, I saw all that gear and just figured it had to be worth a pile of money."

"It is," Pranthi said.

They sat for a while watching people walk past. Her leg braces were always worth a second look, but, sitting with Jack, people watched him and glossed over her. Their looks held suspicion instead of pity. She'd take what she could get.

"You sell the pictures?"

"It is how I make my living."

"You got any pictures of me?"

Pranthi pulled out her tablet and they looked at her pictures. Photo editors didn't enthuse over pictures, as it drove the prices up. Jack's excitement over the shots of him frozen in mid trick was refreshing. She didn't pay attention to the time, so it came as a shock when she shivered so much she feared dropping the tablet.

"Hey," he pulled her to her feet, "take my hoodie. It'll keep you warm." He wrapped it around her and helped her put the camera bag on top. His warmth flowed into her, and eased the ache. "If you think these are cool, I'll get some friends to meet you at the skate park and we'll show you some real moves."

"I'd like that," Pranthi said, relieved that her voice didn't shake from the cold.

"Just leave the hoodie with Frank. He's stuffy, but righteous. I'll get it back okay."

He took off in the opposite direction, pushing his board to crazy speeds and weaving through the crowd on the sidewalk. Pranthi walked back to the apartment.

"That's a different look," Frank said as he opened the door.

"Jack worried I was getting a chill." Pranthi handed Frank her camera bag as she peeled off the sweater. Even inside she wished she had the extra warmth. Time to add a layer or two to her wardrobe.

"There's hope for that kid." Frank folded the hoodie and put it behind the desk for Jack. Pranthi took the elevator up to her room. "I just wish he wouldn't skateboard in the lobby."

One day, the next week, Frank knocked at her door.

"Jack asked me to give you a message," he said. "He even promised to carry his board through the lobby if I delivered it for him right away."

"Thank you," Pranthi said as she took the envelope.

Meet you at sk8 prk. Tomorrow 2. He had drawn a map so she could find the place.

Pranthi sat down to plan what kit she'd need for the shoot. Her main camera and lenses; she had an older camera that would work for some video. A tripod, and hand warmers. She'd never found gloves that let her work the camera fast enough. It wouldn't fit in her usual gear bag, so she packed it in a wheelie case that she didn't use often. It still had space so she tossed in a blanket.

The taxi driver knew where the park was even without the map. His kid was a skater. When he learned she was shooting there, he texted his son. He dropped Pranthi off and pointed her in the right direction to find the park. The driver waved as he drove off and she walked toward the blaring rock music.

The skate park dominated the side of a hill rising up in three tiers. Stairs and ramps connected the tiers while high ramps and a thing that looked like a clamshell were set around the edges. On one side of the bottom tier was a hole that looked like a waterless swimming pool.

Jack waved to her and she was instantly surrounded by skaters who all had their own idea of what she should shoot and how.

"I will set up in one place to shoot," Pranthi said. "When I have enough there, we will move to the next." She pulled out her camera. "Skate for a bit and let me get a feel for what you do. Then we'll get serious."

The first thing that struck her was the flow of skaters. She'd expected chaos and near collisions, but very few times did someone have to veer off. Once she learned the pattern it became easier to shoot. She started following skaters with her new zoom lens on the tripod.

"We'll start with the stairs," she told Jack when she caught his attention. Skaters lined up to ride the railing down the chosen set of steps or simply to jump down. They encouraged her to come in close, promising not to land anywhere near her. She changed lenses and caught some pictures as close to humans in flight as she'd ever seen. When a skater missed a landing, they'd roll on the concrete cursing before taking their board back from whomever caught it.


Bab 13: Chapter 13: Youth In Flight, Part 3

At what the skaters called the grind rail, Pranthi learned that skateboarding had its risks. One of Jack's friends had been trying ever more outrageous tricks. Pranthi suspected that his bottle of water was more alcohol than water. He got sloppier as the afternoon progressed. She set up fifteen feet from the end of the rail. Close enough to have mostly sky as background, far enough back that the person designated to protect her from flying skateboards didn't have much to do.

Duckman flew down the ramp and hit the grind on the rail, but when he came off he tried a one eighty. The board snapped when he landed and he went down hard. He didn't roll neatly but landed in a heap. Pranthi feared he'd killed himself, but he came up swearing, picked up on half of his board and threw it against the concrete. It bounced straight at Pranthi. She huddled around her camera and waited for the board to hit. There was the sound of wood on wood and the board flew past on one side of her.

Next thing Jack ran up to Duckman and screamed in his face. She couldn't make out what he said past the curse words. The other skaters didn't say much, but they stood between Pranthi and the altercation.

"Give me your board and I'll do it again," Duckman said, oblivious to the anger that surrounded him.

"Look at your leg," one of the other skaters said. "You busted it good."

"Nah," Duckman said, "I'm good."

Pranthi peered around the people blocking her. Duckman's face dripped sweat, but his eyes didn't look focused. He took a step toward Jack in what was probably supposed to be a threat and went down on the pavement again. White bone stuck through his jeans as blood spread on the cement.

The skaters dragged him off to the side where one called an ambulance while Duckman cursed him out. The rest rinsed the blood off the cement.

"Can't skate where it's wet," Jack said. "Let's try the bowl." He helped her up. "You okay? Some people don't handle that kind of stuff."

"I've seen worse," Pranthi said. Her legs ached at the memory, but she pushed it aside.

She took some photos from the top of the bowl, and set the camera for slow motion video with a wide-angle lens at the bottom. The skaters zoomed past, up the side to do handstands and other tricks Pranthi couldn't name. Not one came close to hitting the tripod in the bowl. Jack fetched her camera, then collected names and emails from all the skaters, even Duckman's, before Pranthi called the taxi to take her home. Just before she climbed into the taxi, Jack put his hat on her head.

"If you're going to be the photographer for the skaters," he said, "you've got to have the look."

As she processed the pictures and chose the best, Pranthi had to push down the envy at the casual way the skaters threw their bodies into the air. She posted a few shots on her blog and Jack put some on his page. Some of the skaters even bought pictures. She managed another couple of visits to the skate park before the first snows came.

The snow made her wish, as it did every year, that she lived somewhere warmer. Her walk was slow at the best of times, in the snow she barely managed to move at all for fear of falling.

So instead of fighting the weather she put away her winter clothes and stayed indoors, walking up and down the hallways to keep her legs from atrophying completely. Jack put some music on her iPod that roared and growled through her ear buds. The anger in it matched her determination. She wore Jack's hat and listened to his music as she forced her legs to drag her up and down the halls.

The other doors in the hall started showing Christmas decorations. Jack asked her one day why she didn't decorate.

"I'm Hindu," she said, "we have Diwali, but it is in a different month each year in the fall. I don't really do Christmas."

Jack shrugged and left it at that.

Just before Christmas, Jack knocked on her door.

"Hi," he said, "I bought you these before I knew you didn't do Christmas. Is it okay?"

"Gifts are always okay between friends," Pranthi said. She rolled back to let him in.

"It's weird how you don't have anywhere to sit," Jack leaned against the counter.

"Why spend money on chairs I don't need?" she said. "But maybe I should buy some for when a friend comes to visit."

The package from Jack held another hat and a hoodie with what looked like a fur lining.

"You like it?"

"It is wonderful," Pranthi said. "It will keep me warm." She rolled into her office and Jack followed.

"I sold a photo essay to a skate magazine," she said and handed him a copy. The front page was Jack sailing through the air with nothing but clouds in the background.

"No way!" he said. "That's sick." He flipped through the magazine.

"You may keep that copy," Pranthi said. "They sent me a few. I have something else to show you. I do mostly photography, but I've been playing with the video we took." She clicked on a file and a video of the skaters in the bowl came on. She'd cut slow speed and faster speeds and put some pauses in. The background music snarled like the songs he'd given her on the iPod.

"You have to post that," Jack said. "It's amazing." He made her play it half a dozen times. She copied it onto a thumb drive for him and told him he could post it for her.

"Just wait until the summer," he said, "we're going to blow some minds."

Pranthi walked and rolled through January and February. Jack came down to visit after school and on weekends when he wasn't out snowboarding. They made a couple more videos together.

She was shocked to realize she missed him the days he couldn't make it.


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