|
|
|
| |
|
|
| (Snow Down on The Play Ground) |
By:
Brad De Leeuw |
|
The Good Old days
(Snow Down on the Play Ground)
The cold snow burned the sides of his face, his cheeks in particular felt as if they were on fire.
This was the first sensation he noticed as he opened his eyes, besides the burning cheeks, nothing else was very clear. He moved his right arm, brought his hand to his forehead and rubbed gently, the numbness of his hand only compounded the disorientation he was feeling. Taking a
deep breath he once again opened his eyes and struggled to focus on something, anything, to make sense of his situation. The rushing sound of cheers and screams became clear in his ears, he turned his head to the left and then to the right and immediately his senses returned, he knew
exactly where he was.
The day had begun much like any other, except that a huge snow storm had blown through the night before. I didn’t like snow very much, but the first big storm of the season was always exciting. “Hey Johnny, did you wear your slick shoes?” The voice came from my best friend Rhen. “Yeah... Yeah!! I did!!” I responded with a smile. Rhen had been my best friend since
the beginning of time, we think that the first time we had met was at Sunday school, we were about 3 years old at the time. Rhen and I had gone through kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and now 3rd grade together, all the time best friends. “Did ya bring the wax?” Rhen asked. “Yep, I have a
huge chunk, I got from mom’s hobby room”. We walked around the corner to find numerous other classmates already engaged in the ritual for which we came prepared. There is nothing like 3rd graders discussing the day before whether or not to wear dress shoes to school, you know the one’s that you might wear to church on Sunday and that is the only day you would wear them. The only day that is until a massive snow storm dumps a foot of snow, and it becomes fashionable to come in shiny black dress shoes and jeans. We walked up to the end of the short line of boys already engaged in sliding as we called it. I pulled out my chunk of wax, leaned up
against the brick wall and began rubbing it all over the bottom of my left shoe, then applied the same technique to the sole of my right shoe. “Hurry man, you’re almost up and I need to get some on mine” Rhen complained. I handed him the chunk of wax, and got into place for my run and slide. I took off running and then firmly planting my left foot in front of my right I slid for
fifteen to twenty feet. “Woooo hooooo” came the yells from the crowd. When the ride was over, I stood to watch Rhen come down the walk. The goal was to get the longest slide out of the short run, everyone was feverishly rubbing wax on the bottom of their shoes to get the best results.
When Rhen finished his run we slowly walked back to the end of the line, talking about nothing in particular, but then focusing in on a most important subject, a certain cute girl. “She likes you” Rhen said, “Nooo she doesn’t” I replied firmly. We bantered back and forth not noticing Jimmy in front of us until he spoke, “Who likes you?” We just stood there a minute, Jimmy was
an ok guy, but we really didn’t talk with him that much. Rhen all the sudden spoke up, “Jill Sens likes Johnny and he doesn’t dare hold her hand”. Jimmy looked from Rhen to me and then said in a sneering voice, “Jill Sens is my girlfriend so stay away from her”. Rhen looked at me and I
looked at him and we began laughing out of control which didn’t sit well with our new friend Jimmy. “I’m not kidding, if you hold her hand I’ll beat you up” Jimmy said this in the most serious tone. Well, I thought Jill was plenty cute but she became a distant memory as I was suddenly confronted with Jimmy telling me he was going to beat me up. Was I scared? Though
Jimmy was a little taller than me, still, I was not the least bit afraid of him, in fact the opposite, the whole thought of him threatening me seemed funny as could be, thus the fact that Rhen and I were laughing hysterically. “I’ve been going with her since last year” Jimmy said with an even more determined tone. Well, it was all somewhat amusing, until Jimmy had gotten his fill and pushed me. “Ok Jimmy,” I said, “You don’t push me uderstand?” “Lets fight” he said without hesitation, to which I immediately said “OK!”. It was all set up for lunch period recess, I would
meet Jimmy out on the playground and we would square off. The bell suddenly rang, and we all trudged off to class, my buddies patting me on the back all the way in to class, the excitement was so thick you could taste it, there is nothing better than a lunch time fight.
All morning during class I thought about the impending meeting, I began to get butterflies even though Jimmy didn’t scare me at all, I knew I could take him. The clock ticked away, the minutes were endless, the hours were eternal until finally the lunch bell rang. I walked to the lunch room with a entourage around me, it’s funny how you become popular before a fight, and
even funnier how word goes around the school faster than I could eat a Hostess cupcake. As I sat down to eat, Jimmy walked by and smugly said “I hope you don’t chicken out” to which I replied “See you there”.
Eating lunch was nearly impossible, all my buddies swallowed their food whole it seemed and then sat and would not leave me in peace to eat mine, funny how slow I was eating.
I finished up and dumped the tray in the trash can and made my way to get my coat and gloves. I walked out into the cold sunlight, the snow was everywhere and there in the middle of where the black top would usually be was Jimmy and his following. It amazed me how guys were not the
only ones interested in this little meeting, there were at least half as many girls standing around, including Jill who I’m sure had heard the whole story by now. Jimmy took his gloves off and Rhen came over and said “give me your gloves, it will hurt him more if you take them off”. I really didn’t want to hurt my hands so I declined and said I would just keep them on, and was
immediately taunted by Jimmy saying something about how he was really going to kick my butt now. We squared off and began to circle when suddenly my fashionable shoes which were worn for the sole purpose of sliding, did just that and betrayed me. Both feet went out from under me
and I slammed back hard, hitting my head on the packed snow. I had no idea what had happened until my senses began to return with the cheers and screams of the crowd. I turned over and slowly got back to my feet, Jimmy asked, “do you want to keep going or are ya done?” I responded quickly, “No, I’m still fighting you Jimmy!” My head hurt, but I was not letting this guy get the best of me. We circled and he took a swing that hit me in the shoulder, I kept circling waiting for the perfect moment, he jousted at me with his fist, punching but not really hitting anything. Then it happened, I could hear in my mind comments about my gloves not being able
to hurt him so I decided I needed multiple punches and at the same moment I shot out quickly with two left jabs, both connected and then I came around with my right hand hitting him square in the nose. To my amazement he went down, and not only went down but had the most incredible bloody nose.
I just stood there and stared down at him, he wiped the blood on his nose and looked up at me, “I’m done” he said. I couldn’t believe it, that was all? He got up and offered his hand to me, I took it and we shook, I even think we patted each other on the back. My buddies all congratulated me and Jimmy and I walked into the school building with arms slung over each
others shoulders as young friends tend to do. I only held Jill’s hand once, Jimmy was not her boyfriend after that, and Rhen and I continued in our legendary journey’s through elementary and High School. Jimmy and I were never best friends but we were friends from that point on, we
even worked together at the same company one summer after High School graduation, but that’s another time and another story.
Author
Brad De Leeuw |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Home | Contest | Write A Book | Write Ebooks For Cash | Be A Travel Writer | Write Children's Books
Write For Newspapers |
Write An Ezine | Write A Blog | Writing Skills & Tips | Novel Writing Software
|
