The sun beat down on my face like a blazing fire as I got higher up the hill. The mushy mud squished beneath my feet. I pushed the seat of my bike as hard as I could and took one step at a time, up and up and up. When I reached the top I let out a sigh of relief and stood up straight.

“Which way should I go?” I hollered down to my little brother, Noah.

 “Go down that way!” he called back to me, pointing at the part of the hill facing the basketball court.

I flipped the tires on my bike around so that they faced the direction I was going in. I felt the squish of the damp and muddy grass beneath my feet as I perched on the seat.

“Ready?” I shouted down to Noah.

“Go!” he yelled back up to me.

My heart pounding, I pushed off with my feet and felt the mud kick up behind me. My wet shoes skidded a little on my pedals, and I ultimately found my grip and started pedaling as slow as possible, trying not to fall, even though in just a few seconds I was hightailing down the hill. The cool, crisp air whipped against my face as I sped down the hill. The wind reached out and touched my face. My hair thrashed around under my helmet. The mud kicked up behind me, and I turned as I reached the bottom, just barely lurching out of the path of a tree. I rode out onto the basketball court and felt the muck on the ground fling up under my tires and hit my legs. I made a turn right before the end of the basketball court, and all of a sudden my bike slipped out from beneath me. I went flying off the bike and onto the court. I landed on my hands and knees as Noah ran up to me.

“Are you okay?!” he asked, exasperated.

Trembling, I stood up lethargically and looked down to see the mud all over my shirt and shorts. My clothes were as filthy as a pig in mud. I wiped my dirty hands off on my shirt.  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I told him.

Noah dropped his bike and walked over to mine, which lay next to where it had fallen on the court. I leisurely picked the bike up by the handlebars and hauled it up straight. The chords around the bars were all contorted and awry.

“What happened?” Noah inquired.

“I don’t know, I just slipped on all the mud and fell. But my bike doesn’t look great,” I confessed.

A few seconds later, he raced home on his bike to get my mom.  I looked over to see a lady with a dog sauntering over to me. The dog was chocolate brown and serene. I hadn’t seen the lady before and therefore was a little bit confused, but I watched as she approached me and my mutilated bike.

“I saw you fall off your bike. Are you okay?” she asked me.

“I’m fine,” I said regretfully.

“Okay. I’ll just wait with you until your mom gets here.”  We stood there awkwardly until my mom pulled up with my brother.  Dashing away, I said my thanks and walked over to the car as quickly as I could.

My mom got out looking exasperated.  “What happened? Are you okay? You have mud all over you!” The questions flew at me a million miles a minute.

I assured her that I was okay and explained the concern about my bike.

“Yeah, Noah told me. I’ll put it in the back of the car. Are you going to ride home with me, too?”

“Can Noah and I just walk back?” I asked.

“I guess, if you want to,” she said as we began walking back towards the road with my bike.

“Grace, what were you thinking? You could’ve gotten seriously hurt!”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll be more careful next time.” I sighed.

My mom pulled out in the car and turned around, driving back home. Noah and I strutted side by side along the road. The sun rays danced across my eyes.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” my brother probed.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I groaned. “I’m just kind of mad about what happened to my bike. I should’ve been more careful.”

“Yeah, probably not a good idea to ride your bike down a hill when it’s all wet and muddy out. I’m sure your bike will be fine, though,” he reassured me.

“I hope so.”

Back at home, I washed away the dirt and grime. Then I went back outside to join my mom and brother on the back porch.

For a while after the incident, I continued pondering about the choices I made that day. What could possibly have been going through my head on top of that hill? At the time, it hadn’t seemed like that big of a deal. Now, though, I envisaged why I would’ve thought it was a good idea to ride my bike down the hill, exceedingly fast, while it was all wet and slippery. It sure didn’t seem like a very favorable notion after my wipeout. I realized subsequently that I hadn’t been very conscientious, and I hadn’t thought through my actions very well. I made a mental note to myself to be more careful and cautious when making decisions in the future, now knowing what results bad choices could lead to.

 

 

 

 

-Grace M.