I was no longer an elephant, I was a trapeze. moving and flying gracefully around my mother's disapproving gaze.
I snuck out almost every day. we'd go down by the creek and search for craw dads and cool rocks, and one day he told me about his family.
I told him about mine.
I realized we weren't so different. we both had parents putting on a show, smiling for an audience only they could see.
"you're my best friend, you know that?" he said on a day we were trying to skip rocks.
"you're my only friend," I replied.
"same."
and then he took my hand in his and we stayed like that for a while.
