Brett mentioned several weeks ago that he'd been to the chiropractor because his back was acting up again.
"Again?" I asked, not aware that there'd been a first time.
"Yeah," Brett replied. "It's bothered me ever since ........"
And then he told me the story.
Brett was a typical boy child. Anxious to
be outdoors, involved in digging holes and filling them with water,
playing with his Matchbox cars, practicing wheelies on his 20" bike.
Like I said, boy stuff.
We had black lab, Trixie, who needed to be
exercised, and when Dawn and Brett reached their teens, I'd often
cajole one or the other to give me a break and take her for a before-bed
jaunt. One summer evening a friend of Brett's came by and to have
something to do, they agreed to walk the dog down the street to the
schoolyard.
Once there, it was our practice to let the
dog off her leash so she could run, chasing the scent of 'possums,
squirrels and other suburban wildlife. When I walked her and had set
her free, I'd sit on one of the team benches at the ballfield and wait
for her to wear herself out.
The boys, being boys, spent their time
staying as busy as Trixie was. They might hop the length of a team
bench on one foot. To make the task more challenging, they might try
jumping the length backwards, perhaps with their eyes closed.
I believe they climbed the backstop only
once, ever. Obviously it was built to stop balls, not to provide
supplementary seating. The night of this story, the weight of the two
boys cavorting 18 feet or so off the ground resulted in the top section
collapsing backwards, swinging down (in slow motion, Brett said) to
deposit the two teens on their backs in the dirt.
Brett doesn't remember how long they lay
there. His friend Todd was knocked out. Not for long, Brett said, but
it did take a few moments for him to come to. Brett had the wind
knocked out of him. He recalls carefully sitting up, grateful to
discover that he could.
When Todd opened his eyes, he immediately
wanted to go tell his mother. Brett told him he couldn't: They'd have
to pay to fix the backstop, they'd probably be grounded and maybe they'd
never be allowed together again without supervision. He swore Todd to
secrecy. And nothing was ever said by either of them. Until now, 15
years later.
Dawn and Brett have told me other horror
stories as they've put time between the event and the telling. And I
know there are more, because one will interrupt the other who's relating
something from their childhood to say something like, "Have you noticed
the price of apples lately?...."
I hope they'll tell me when the stories have all been told. And I hope it's soon.
