Lee Darling
Eugene, Oregon, USA

What Might Have Been

From first grade on, I shared classrooms and lunch times with Mary Ortiz, Carlotta Chacón, Julie Perez and Nettie Aguilera. I thought of them as friends, although they lived across an invisible line from the rest of the town.

My family lived on the wrong side of different line, one that split old from new and plenty from almost enough.

But I didn’t think about those lines when Ronnie whirled us to third place in that dance contest. Ronnie Ramirez! Tall, handsome, best dancer in our class. I felt like Cinderella at the ball.

It took years to understand—if his skin had matched mine, we would have won. It has taken decades to realize—if my skin had matched his, we wouldn’t have had a chance.

orange blossoms
perfume the night air
dancing done