A gang of raccoons lived in a big city. They were fat and healthy and they spent their days curled up under porches and oleander bushes. At night they came alive and ran through the city streets in a pack searching for snacks on the empty sidewalks. These raccoons had a favorite place. A multistory parking structure. They never found much to eat on the vast expanses of concrete, except an occasional dead pigeon, but they loved to race each other from level to level, chattering together as they explored.
Then one night the skate boarders appeared. They too had spent the day curled up in dark corners, and they were now ready to expend a little energy. At first the raccoons were horrified. They retreated and glared angrily at the interlopers. They did not want to give up their play ground to the ruffians. They watched and waited until the skate boarders grew tired and went home.
One night a young raccoon thought that skate boarding looked like fun. When a board was left untended, he sniffed at it, pushed at it with a hesitant paw, and eventually got up the courage to jump on the board. The board took off with the young raccoon perilously balanced.
In a few weeks all the raccoons were skate boarding down all six floors of the parking structure, then waiting impatiently for the humans to take the boards back up to the top level so they could ride them down again. Some of the humans reflected that a low center of gravity and four control points on the board gave the raccoons a certain advantage.
One night the security guard for the structure actually left his office and made the rounds of the complex. He heard the sound of skate boards coming from the parking structure.
``Those kids again,'' he thought.
He saw the young humans and raccoons skate boarding joyfully in the dim light. It seemed to him that if he shouted and waved his flashlight he would be breaking a spell, and it was a spell he did not want to break. So he left quietly, wishing he had the courage to jump on a skate board. Sadly, he was too old and fat.