Never To Old

By Margaret Marr

"Look what I got us." My husband held up two pairs of ice skates, looking like a ten year old boy with his first bike.
"What, may I ask, are you going to do with those?" I took my hands out of the dishwater and wiped them on a damp dishtowel.
"We..." He emphasized the word we. "...are going to go ice skating today."
I groaned and rolled my eyes heavenward. Not again, I thought. Jim had been trying to get me to try things only young people do since my sixtieth birthday. I preferred to stay in my nice safe house and sit by the fire and read or crochet. I was an old person now, and it was time to put away all those silly notions that I could still do things a young person did. But Jim refused to see my point, and so he continued to try and entice me into something new almost everyday.
"Please, Martha, just this once," he begged.
I sighed and hung the dishtowel on the rack. "I don't know. What if we fall and break a bone or something?" I had visions of being wrapped from head to toe in a full body cast.
"We'll go to the hospital and get fixed up, and then come back and try it again after we get healed." Jim held the skates out to me again.
I gave him a doubtful look. If I fell and broke a bone, I sure wasn't going to go back for another dose of that medicine. "I haven't skated in years." I felt my resolve weakening. I once enjoyed ice skating.
"It's like riding a bicycle, you never forget how."
My eyes dropped to the scab on his elbow where last week he'd had a bicycle wreck after running through a pile of trash cans left out on the sidewalk.
"I'll catch you if you fall," he said.
I turned and let the water out and rinsed the suds down the drain. I smiled at the memory of our first meeting. It had been on the local ice pound, and I was just learning to skate. I was out of control and couldn't figure out how to stop. Jim caught me in his powerful arms and saved from a terrible fall.
"Okay, let's do it," I said.
At the frozen pound, I laced my skates and looked at the ice with apprehension. The air blew from my mouth in little white puffs, and I was cold down to the bone.
Jim stood up, slipping a little in the snow, and reached for my hand.
"We're the only seniors here," I hissed as I put my hand in his.
"You're only as old as you act."
Hand in hand we walked out on the ice. I let the skates slide along without me doing anything, but trying to keep my balance. After a few minutes, I felt confident enough to push with my legs to go a little faster. Jim was right I hadn't forgotten how to skate.
Jim laughed and let go of my hand. I skated around the pound, weaving in and out of the teenagers. I felt exhilarated with the icy wind freezing my face. Everything felt fresh and alive. I felt young again, and my heart beat with an excitement I hadn't felt in years.
Suddenly, strong arms caught me and swung me around. I looked into my husband's blue eyes and saw the young man I'd fallen in love with forty years ago. "Thank you," I said. We skated hand in hand like young lovers.
Two hours later we climbed into the car cold and exhausted, but happy. Jim took my hand and squeezed it. "Thank you for coming with me this time."
"Jim, let's promise each other we'll only use those two rocking chairs on the porch for quiet Sunday afternoons after church."
Jim grinned like a teenager after the prettiest girl in the school agreed to go out with him. "I thought we might try go-carts, tomorrow."

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