Liminal

Liminal

I remember the smell of the screen door

as I stood looking down at the scruffy patch

of the small park where we kids played ball.

It was still early summer— there would be 

many days of ball playing before I started

seventh grade at the Junior High. No more

solitary walks across town to the to elementary 

school. No one knew me there except Mr, Justice, 

who was my teacher and the school’s principal. 

I liked his smiling eyes.  He liked me because 

I caught on fast, he said.  Good thing, too, because in

Oberlin schools we hadn’t had grammar or

handwriting.  Now I knew 8 parts of speech

and how Palmer Method capital letters were 

supposed to loop and swoop like barn swallows.

I knew my life was changing.  Nancy was in 11th

grade and already planning to go back to Oberlin

for college. Which she did,  Nancy planned ahead.

Pete didn’t.  He was super smart but didn’t like

school, so never did homework.  That scared me.

I liked school much more than Pete did.  I did my

homework.  In 7th grade I would have my own 

text books to take home.  Also, there was a library  

in the High School where I could take out 3 books

at a time.  Plus 3 at a time from the town library.

so that made a good stack in our room.  When we

moved to Leetonia, we three sisters shared a room.

Nancy didn’t like sharing with 2 younger sisters

but Barbara slept in a twin bed now and we all had

Paisley India print bedspreads.  I liked matching

both sisters, even though Barbara was only 4. It was

important for me to learn big-sistering, my mother

said.  She was a middle child, like me, and so she had 

learned two very important lessons that she knew I 

would learn, too: 1. How to keep up with those ahead 

of you, and 2. How to be helpful to those behind you.

I liked it when Mother told me important things, and

so I remember that long ago June day with my nose

against the screen door, promising myself that I would

always, always remember standing here 

in this moment, even when I got very old

and it was the 21st Century.

-Sef, 4/19/2025