NATCHEZ — Destiney Mayfield doesn’t just walk down the street. She slides and glides.

When the Dart found Mayfield near Martin’s Lane Friday afternoon, she was just getting home from school at Frazier Elementary School.

A normal afternoon might include doing some homework, maybe having a snack. But one of Mayfield’s favorite after school activities is to strap on her roller blades and take to the street.

Mayfield, 11, has been a skater for two months.

Her interest in skating started, Mayfield said, because her mother — Michelle Mayfield — also likes to skate and thought it would be something they could do together.

“My mom told me she was going to buy me some skates, and she was going to do it with me,” Destiney said. “At first I wasn’t sure, but then I liked it.”

The Mayfield residence is near two hills, and Destiney said her mother started teaching her how to skate by teaching her to balance while letting gravity do the work. She learned with a pair of four-wheel roller skates.

“She would take me to the top of the hill and tell me to roll down to her,” Destiney said.

“When you are going up, it is hard, but when you are going down you feel like you are going to fall.”

And that’s how it was at first, though Destiney quickly learned.

“I used to make it to the top of (our) driveway and fall down, but now I don’t,” she said.

She did suffer a setback at the hand of a mean-hearted thief, though.

“I was able to skate backward, but they stole my skates,” she said. “I was real sad, and so my mom got me another pair, but they were roller blades.”

While the replacement skates aren’t the same as the first pair, they’re still good for an afternoon of fun, Destiney said.

“I like them because you can feel like you’re sliding and gliding,” she said. “It’s more fun than walking.”