skateaway

Erica twisted the plastic flag in her small hands. “Is a buried cable like a buried person?”

“Sort of,” I said. “Buried just means that something is put underground. When people die, they’re put underground. They do the same with wires.” I thought about why we do it: to keep them from getting in the way, to keep the landscape from being cluttered up by corpses and cables.

“Does everyone have to be buried?”

“No. Not everyone wants to be buried.” I explained that sometimes people have different wishes for what they want to have done with them when they die. “Some people want to be cremated. You can specify all kinds of things. Like, instead of a funeral, some people want a party.”

Her eyes lit up. It was a foregone conclusion that her memorial service would be a party.

“I know where I want my party to be.”

“Where’s that?”

“Skateaway!”

She is wise beyond her seven years. A roller rink is, I think, a perfect place for a memorial.