Rollerblading with Cody

A little boy by the name of Cody lives in the building next to ours.

The first time I met him, he was dressed up as Dracula. As Derek and I moved into our new apartment with the help of our friends, six-year-old "Dracula" stood at the bottom of the stairs, waiting to come out and scare us. He did manage to make me jump — he had the black cape, white face, fangs and all.

The next time I saw him, he was shuffling around on his little rollerblades in the parking lot. He seemed to be having fun by himself. He wasn't shy, either, and seemed eager to talk.

"Do you speak Japanese?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

"No," I laughed as I hurled my bag of trash into the dumpster. "I'm Chinese. So you like rollerblading? Hey, I have skates too. Maybe we can go skating together sometime."

"Ok!" Cody smiled.

Little did I know, the little boy took that invitation very seriously. A week later, he caught me in the parking lot and asked me to rollerblade with him.

"I'm sorry, Cody, I have to go make dinner first," I said. "Have you had your dinner yet?"

"I never eat dinner!" he said.

"Well, maybe we can skate after Derek and I have ours, ok?"

"Ok...but hurry up!"

Half an hour later, I heard loud clanking footsteps coming up the stairs and a knock on my door.

"Are you done yet?" an impatient Cody peeked in. He had climbed three stories with his rollerblades on.

"Not yet..." I said, but promised him I'd be downstairs with my blades in 20 minutes. He pouted, then clanked back down the steps.

Cody was excited finally to have found a rollerblading companion. The two of us skated around the parking lot, going up and down the ramps, on and off the sidewalks. Cody showed me how to pick up pebbles and make lines to jump over.

"No, like this," he said, demonstrating to me how to jump three times in succession. "Ok, you practice over there. I'll do it here, because I'm a better skater." I nodded and tried to "practice" what Cody had told me.

When his mom called him from their second floor apartment, Cody answered her: "Wait, mom, I'm skating with my new friend!"

I smiled. I had become Cody's "friend" through the simple act of rollerblading!

Later that evening, Cody invited me up to his apartment, where I got to meet Cody's mom and her friend Ed. As I headed by back to my apartment in the descending darkness, I thanked God for my rollerblades — and the opportunity to meet my neighbors here.

I hope I get to go rollerblading with Cody sometime again.