Narrative Magazine: KICKFLIP BOYS Excerpt

Kickflip

BY NEAL THOMPSON

FIVE TEEN BOYS and two grown men, squished into a huge SUV, hemmed in by skateboards, video gear, sweat-skanked clothes. Doritos bags, soda cans, and water bottles at their feet. A record-breaking heat wave simmering outside, the air conditioner groaning. Seven of us, lost in Cleveland, and I’m wondering why I thought this was a good idea.

Sean, fourteen, the older of my two sons, sitting beside me in his cutoff jeans and Thrasher T-shirt, pokes our iPad screen, zooms i...