Member-only story
Tree Runner- A Roland McCray Story
The summer magic of new sneakers
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
Lao Tzu
I laced up my new sneakers, the only pair I would get this year, this summer, then stood and felt the bounce in them. I felt like I could walk on the very air beneath me, and I could not wait to try them out.
“Thanks, mom,” I said, and she smiled.
“You’re welcome, Roland. And I hope you enjoy them, they cost enough!” Dad didn’t like to spend much on shoes or clothes that I’d grow out of, anyway, and would only let her buy me the cheapest pair we could find at JM Fields every year. But mom had set aside some of her sewing money to get me a brand name.
I smiled. “I will,” I promised. “In fact, I’m going to try them out now.”
I left my backyard and walked through the cool, green, grove created by five ancient pin oak trees that sprouted from acorns just after the Civil War. Nothing grew under the oaks because their massive branches high on the tree trunks lifted toward the sky to form a near solid green roof of narrow “pin” oak leaves that captured most of the sun before it reached the rich, dark soil below. I turned to the left and walked toward tall pine trees of the same age that had massive, gnarled roots above ground, a…
