What was I supposed to do, huh? Just stand there and take it?
“Chick-en! Chick-en! Chick-en!” my friends chanted together. “BAWK! BAWK! BAWK!” They cried as they flapped their arms like chicken wings!
I couldn’t let em’ get away with that! Nobody called me chicken and flapped there “ BAWK! BAWK! ” chicken wings at me and got away with it! No sir!
…So with spotlights blindin’ly shinin’ upon me, I walked out upon the stage! Adorned in a white caped jumpsuit lined with rhinestones that sparkled like a million points of light, and I mounted my motorcycle!
The crowds rose to their feet!
Like mighty drums beatin’ in unison they stomped upon the stadium floors!
And I revved my engine to the sounds of thunderous applause!
As the world held its breath in anticipation, I sped my motorcycle down the ramp burstin’ through those rings of fire and soarin’ over the labyrinth of impendin’ doom...
Blackened slimy mud had softened my fall !
My white T-shirt, white pants, white towel used as a cape and my white stick cane that I had drawn multicolored stars on with a golden crayon were now completely discolored! My clothes clung to my body in an uncomfortable icky mess!
My bike had flown up into the air and had landed somewhere in the bushes about a hundred feet away from where I lay in that muddy creek water! My so called compadres laughed and jeered at me as I cautiously rose up from the mud and cleaned my shoes and hands upon the surroundin’ grasses! As I gained stability in that muck and mire, I did not feel pain.
Though I did feel slight damage done to my pride area!
“See, I aint no chicken!” I said while retrievin’ my bike from out of the bushes.
“ They might be laughing at me now! ” I thought. “ But I sure showed them! I aint no chicken! No Sir!”
And with that little bit of wisdom I got back on my bike and rode home. “ Who cares what they think anyways? ” I thought to myself.
Mama would never let me jump over things like that if she knew about it before hand! No sir! Believe me I’ve asked her! “ But Nooooooh! ” I said shakin’ my head one way and my whole body the other! “ Mama won’t let me jump stuff! ” Just how was I supposed to show em’ how good I was at makin’ cool jumpsif I was never allowed to make any? Huh? How was I?
Mama wouldn’t even let us do any zigzaggin’ when we rode our bikes on the road either!
And we liked zigzaggin’ !
I’d yell “ Mom, me and Anna are going bike ridin’! ”
“ Well, you better watch that road and get over to the side if you see a car coming. ” Mama would reply.
“ Okay Mom! ”
“ And don’t you be going past Mr. Roberts’s silver barn now, you hear me? You make sure that I can see you out there. ” She’d continue matter of factly.
Mr. Roberts had two barns. A big red one that sat close to the road by our fence line and a smaller silver barn that sat straight down from it near his driveway by his house. Mama only allowed us to ride on the road between these two buildings. It was in her line of sight. And it was in our line of hearing! It was a straight stretch of road that she could monitor from any window in our house that faced in that direction.
“ Okay Mom! ”
“ And you watch out for your little sister. ”
“ Okay Mom! ”
“ And no zigzaggin’! ” She’d say just before I got out of ear shot.
“ Okay! ” I’d exclaim as my bike tires met the road.
Zigzaggin’ is what they called it when you ride on one side of the road and then you change over to the other side of the road, and so on back and forth like that? Mama only wanted us to ride on one side of the road only! She never wanted us to have any fun! No sir! No fun at all!
I sometimes wondered if Mama had a big rule book somewhere with all of the fun stuff to