Friendly Advice

It was in sixth grade and his name was Alic Madina. We had a real history, we had gotten in trouble many times together. Since we had nothing better to do we biked all around town a lot. Alic rode an old sixties road bike and I rode a new mountain bike. He wasn’t much of a rider, I can recall many times when out of nowhere he would just fall over. There would be no warning, he would just tip over and many times I would then crash into him.

We were riding around one day out of boredom and we came upon a construction site. Naturally we rode in. We rode around a little jumping off little mounds and kicking up dust. Then we saw it, the finest mound of dirt I had ever seen.. It was about six feet tall with a steep drop off.

I wasn’t about to jump it, it was suicide. But I did have a talent of encouraging Alic to do stupid things. I told him if he jumped it I would do it right after him. I also told him it looks a lot harder than really is and that I had jumped things like this before. I convinced him to do it, jump the dirt mound on his road bike. I gave him a few pointers before he went for his flight. I told him he would need to catch a lot of speed if he were going to make it. Luckily there was a steep incline before the jump so Alic would have no problem getting plenty of speed. Alic slowly rode to the top of the hill; I stayed at the bottom ready to see the show.

Alic was having second thoughts so he called out "Do you really think this is a good idea."

I yelled back without hesitation "of course."

He then yelled "Dude I’m going to kill myself."

I yelled back "There is no way you can kill yourself, you got a helmet on."

He reluctantly agreed. He was ready for his departure. He started down the hill with more speed than I anticipated. He came racing down on his road bike with dust and rocks spraying up behind him. His bike looked like it would fall apart any second. He had a look of terror in his face, his body was tense and his head was tilted back like he was going too fast to keep it upright. His face looked like he finally realized that this was a bad idea. Alic hit the jump at about thirty-five MPH and flew in the air screaming. He went about ten feet in the air. While in the air he and his bike separated. He came to a sudden halt when the ground interfered with his flight. His arms went out with a pathetic attempt to break his fall. His head hit the ground and bounced back off, then the rest of him followed. He tumbled like a rag doll on ground for another five feet.

He quickly sprang to his feet and started jumping around frantically, yelling obscenities. He was covered with dust and had an unforgettable look on his face. By then I was laughing so hard I couldn’t stand. It was a miracle Alic was still alive. His bike rim was folded in half and both tires were flat. He suddenly became conscious of what happened and ran at me. He caught me off guard and knocked the wind out of me. He was on top of me hitting yelling at me, I guess I deserved it. I quickly fought him off and was ready to fight. All the sudden we both spontaneously started laughing. We left his bike there and walked home. Every time I tried to encourage him to do something stupid from then on he threw this event in my face. His flight will never be forgotten.