Black Bars

We called them the black bars because that’s what they were – black metal bars right beside Dwaine’s house.  The only black bars in the neighbourhood.  Painted black once a year.  A shiny top coat.  It was here that we made potions from the poisonous berries on the bush beside Dwaine’s house.  We played house, while mixing our potions on top of Dwaine’s air conditioner, beside Dwaine’s house.  We did this for years, until one day Dwaine came outside his house and told us he’d have to get a new air conditioner.  Some kids had been throwing dirt and sticks and berries and grass into his air conditioner, making his house dirty.  We nodded at Dwaine and went back to playing at the black bars, swinging, and sitting, and talking about Dwaine’s broken air conditioner.  We scratched the black paint off the black bars beside Dwaine’s house while we talked.  Underneath all that paint, afterall, was just metal.  Metal bars painted black.  The only colour that would do for the bars beside Dwaine’s house.