I read Jenkins' collection "The Winter Road" and came up with this.
Another in the "Walkthrough" series.
Walkthrough: Louis Jenkins
In a small northern town the children hear the chain behind the windy trees behind the house. It takes them up in slow, chinking steps while the neon sinks around them. They laugh, sometimes alone, at the memory of the coaster making its way to the top. And while they recall that expectation like old men talking about wild women, their parents climb ladders to tie off tire swings. They have all but forgotten it, having descended so many times, the wide-eyed space of age all but overtaking them. They know that the view down is better than the ascent, that there is a consolation for age, thick laughter in the face of the night, the reward for a life of hands and feet inside at all times.
