a short story for the short minded

[greg]

I feel my shoe coming off in the thick sucking mud of the bottom of the river. “This can’t be it!” I yell to myself. “I can’t die like this!’

A week before, it was a normal summer afternoon of my childhood. After sleeping in for most of the morning, my friends and I slowly congregate towards each others houses, each kid joining the group as we ride our bikes down the street. Summer was a time of bliss for us, spending endless hours on our BMX bikes, jumping anything and everything we could find. Our group of 12 year olds became known as the “pack” around the neighborhood, as there were usually 5 to 6 of us riding together at any given moment. Today was no different, so it seemed. In reality, it was the beginning of a legend.

As most days, we started off the jumping sessions at Rick’s house. Rick was a tall, gangly boy, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a build that already had the girls swooning. He was by far the best of us at jumping. I think it was mostly his lack of fear. Although he had all of the looks, and physical ability, he definitely lacked in the mental department. We started off as we always do, laying down a 55 gallon drum and dragging a piece of plywood up to it. This became our ramp, a two foot high jump with a flat landing on blacktop. We lined up at our usual starting spot to get a good run at it, and one after the other would fly off the ramp. Rick was first, with James spotting the mark where he landed. Now James, he was an odd one, a heavy set boy, never jumped, but boy could he talk up a storm. If you didn’t know him, you’d of thought he was a pro bike rider with all his stories. Rick made a good first jump, and of course let us know it. “HA, We might as well pack it in now boys, you can’t beat that!” he burst out with. There was the usual comebacks from 12 year old boys, flipping the bird, fingers pointing to where he could kiss, etc. It was the first jump, and already the smack talking had begun. Tony was the next in line. I’m always surprised to see Tony jump. He loves his bike so much, I think he slept with the thing. I mean he had it polished like you could not believe. Never a speck of dirt on it. Yet, when it came time to jump, there he was, doing it with us. He had to have spent hours each night getting the days grime off his wheels. Tony made a good effort at beating Rick, but really didn’t have a chance, barely going half way to the mark. The other guys came up with basically the same result, leaving me to give Rick a little bit of a challenge. Me, I was somewhere in between ability and just dreaming. I wanted so bad to be able to handle my bike like the pros, and was given just enough natural ability to tease me. I seemed to have to struggle with everything to achieve my goals. I was OK with this, and it just made me want it even more. I took off towards the ramp, pulled up at the best possible moment, and soared. When I landed, I was sure that I had beaten Rick’s mark. I did a little power slide in the soft dirt, and flipped the bike around to see the results. James was standing with his foot at the point of impact…..I was six inches short. I couldn’t believe it, my best jump yet, and it was still short of Rick’s first jump of the day, not even his best jump of the day.

The day progressed as usual, with the jumping, trash talking, and finger pointing. I, however, did not take this day as usual. I had reached the point of breaking. I knew that the only way to beat Rick, was to do something spectacular, something that every kid would talk about for all eternity. I had to come up with the ultimate jump, even if it killed me.



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[ILovemyStaats]

I love it! I want to see what happens next! Hurry up and write more!