TITLE: Adventures of Ron Huckleberry...#12 Gas station bike accident By gene hudgens 01/13/08 |
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It isn’t summer and school vacation time, so this adventure takes place in his home town instead of with his grandmother.
Santa had brought Ron a new bike. It was a beauty, but a tiny bit too big for him to have total-control. He felt confident thought…and that was a serious situation.
“Ron”, Dad said, “You’ve proved that you can handle this bike, but it’s a tiny bit too big for you. We probably should wait a couple of months, but I know you’re dying to start riding. So just promise me that you will go slow and careful, especially until you’re sure you’re in control.”
“Dad”, I promise I’ll be extra careful and I promise I go real slowly.” Ron begged.
The rest of the day he rode up and down his street, but the next morning he began exploring the entire town. Ron’s home was at the foot of the mountain and much higher than the town below.
As Ron gained confidence, he began to ride down to town almost daily and ride back home. It wasn’t long before he wanted to expand his exploring to new areas. If he rode down to the town center he could continue across the business district and ride up the hill on the other side of town.
The distance from town to the top of the hill on the other side of town was twice as far as to his own house. It was a beautiful day and he finally made it to the top of the hill. At the very top was a huge cemetery. He rode through the cemetery for at least an hour before he realized that he needed to immediately head home or he would be late…and being late was a real no with the maid that cared for him and his younger sister while mom and dad worked.
Ron rode back to the main street that he had taken from town to the cemetery and began to ride back down the hill towards town. The street was a main street and there were businesses on both sides, especially nearer town center.
He was being careful, because he was going down hill. He found that he had to brake quite often to avoid letting his speed get out of hand. All was going well until he pushed back on the brake and the chain popped-out. He now had no brakes. Instead of immediately falling to the ground and sliding to a halt, he kept riding and gaining speed.
He knew well that he had a big problem, but he just could not decide what to do to solve this problem. If he forced the bike to wreck he knew he would tear the skin from his legs since he was wearing short pants. He was trying to think fast, but his bike was going faster than his brain. His speed was out of hand and he was panicking. Near the bottom of the hill was a large filling station’ on the left and the owner had many stands of new tires lined up very near the main road.
Ron knew he was likely going to be hurt before he could stop his bike, so he decided he might be hurt less by driving into the stands of new tires than he likely would if he speeded past the tires and into the busy intersection and hit by a truck.
Time was quickly running out for a decision as he headed his bike towards the tires. When he and his bike hit the first tire Ron felt like a truck had already hit him. All he remembered was flying over the steering wheel, hitting the first tire, going through the first tire and what felt several tires.
He was in terrible pain as he heard people screaming. Very quickly several men had carefully pulled “stunt-man” out of the pile of tires. “Call an ambulance.” a man yelled. “I think the kid is hurt badly.”
The owner rushed to where Ron was now lying. He recognized Ron immediately, because he had been with his dad several times when Dad gassed-up. “Son, what hurts you most?” He asked. “Take it easy and just point to what hurts.”
Ron was in pain, but with his right hand pointed to his left arm. Both men were quickly and carefully checking his arm. It was definitely broken. “Son, do you know your dad’s telephone number?” He asked.
“No Sir, but my home number is 71717.” Ron stated.
Another man knelt by Ron and placed a jacket under his head and held his hand. The owner said, “Son, I’ll be right back. I’ll phone your home.” He did and the maid answered. The man explained and asked the maid to phone Ron’s parents and tell them that he was driving Ron to the hospital right now.
The hospital was near Ron’s dad’s office and when the two men and Ron arrived at the hospital Dad was waiting. As he rushed to Ron, a man explained what had happened. By this time an attendant was wheeling a hospital cot to the scene. “Ron”, Dad said softly, as he kissed and hugged him. “Is is only your arm that hurts?”
Dad and both men walked beside the cot as Ron was wheeled to the emergency room. Dad thanked both men for their help and assured the station owner that he would be given an update within an hour. Dad quickly phoned Mom and explained the situation and then he stayed with Ron in the emergency room until his arm was x-rayed and put into a cast.
On the way home Ron expected his dad to be angry, but he was happily surprised that Dad only said that they both had thank God several time for taking such good care of him, because it could have been much worse.
Dad drove home and Mom was there waiting. The only one crying was the maid. Ron was not fussed at one time and babied too much. The maid insisted staying with Ron all night. Ron was tired for some reason and the last thing he remembered before slipping into dream world was Miss Anna reading to him.
(c) Gene Hudgens
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