The Elderly Twins Who Walk the Boardwalk

Every morning at seven, two identical old women walk the boardwalk in our beach town, arm in arm, wearing matching tracksuits in different colors. Today it was lavender and mint green.

They're twins, ninety-one years old. Their names are Hazel and Mabel. They've walked the boardwalk every morning since they both retired in 1992. They wave at the surfers and the bakery owner and the man who rents bicycles, and everyone waves back.

I started timing my morning run to pass them. One day Mabel stopped me and asked why I always looked so serious when I ran. I said I didn't know. She said, "Try smiling. It makes your legs lighter." I tried it. She was right.

Now we chat for a minute every morning. They tell me about the boardwalk in the fifties, about dancing at the old pavilion, about the summer a dolphin swam right up to the pier. I run faster now. I smile the whole time.