Memorial Day

This chapter describes what I think is one of the funniest memories of J.C. and me.

Getting back to the way that we had been before came so easily for J.C. and me. Everything was completely natural, and it honestly felt like we had never been separated for even a single day. We spent time together the next night as well (and he volunteered himself to watch Justin Bieber:  Never Say Never') and on Sunday, too. Each day was absolutely wonderful...and I had a feeling that things were just going to keep on getting better and better.

 

On Memorial Day, what I consider to be one of the funniest occurrences involving J.C. and me took place. The two of us, along with his father and Dan--the guy who lived across the street from them--went to Tree Off-road Park in Alto with his Range and Dan's Razr in tow.

 

At one point, we switched ATVs--Johnny and Dan were in the Ranger, and J.C. and I were in the Razr. He decided to drive it at a very high speed through this gigantic mudhole. The first time he did this, everything went perfectly. The second time? Yeah...totally different story.

 

The Razr was equipped with seatbelts and had a bar in front of my seat and toward the bottom of my seat on the right side for riders to hold onto. I guess the smart thing for me to have been doing would have been to have my seatbelt on and both of my hands on the bar in front of my seat...but as you probably already guessed, I wasn't actually doing that. The seatbelt was off to the side, and the only thing that I was holding onto--with only one hand--was the bar on the bottom of my seat.

 

I guess what happened is we hit a really big bump and got stuck up against it. Whatever it was, it happened pretty fast. All I saw was a wall of muddy water coming toward me as I felt myself losing my grip on the bar and flying upward...and then, my forehead was roughly introduced to the frame of the ATV before I was hurled back down.

 

I ended up with a busted-up forehead and a black right eye. Even though it wasn't the most painless thing in the world, I surprised myself--and the guys--by laughing all the way through it; crying was actually not something that I felt like doing in the slightest. Upon seeing that I wasn't really all that bothered, the three of them ended up laughing about it as well, and Johnny snapped a few pictures of the damage with his phone.

 

We called it a day shortly after that; they were concerned that I would probably end up with a pretty nasty headache and fall asleep before too long. However, the anticipated headache never showed up...and I didn't fall asleep until that night. Within a week or two, the bruising was gone, and the cuts had healed, leaving only two very faint scars behind.