A Childhood Dare

this is another story of my childhood of when i was dared to roll down a hill.

I was a child. An adventurous one. One who never turned down a dare. So I went forth when my friends older brother told me I was a good idea to roll all the way down a steep 30 foot hill.

I was summer and it was hot.  My feet calloused from walking around barefoot all day and a scar from yesterday. I cut my toe open while running down the sidewalk barefooted. My mom didn’t see the point in getting stitches. I cut my toe open almost every week. Always my big toes. So she just wrapped a bandaid around it.

My shorts with little embroidered flowers stuck to my legs from the sweat.

My shirt had a streak of dirt from wrestling my little sister to the ground in the grass earlier.

Down I went. Stumbling. My curly hair bouncing everywhere. Rocks digging into my back. Blades of grass slicing my legs and arms.

The roll ended in a somersault, my head clunking to the ground, blood on my knee, and a bee sting on the back of my neck.

In pain, I was mad at him. Not a good idea at all.

I stomped up the hill with slight tears in my eyes and went inside.

My mom saw that I was all banged up and plopped me up on the dining room table.

“What happened honey?” she said.

“I rolled down the hill and got booboos,” I said, pouting.

“Well why’d you do that?”

Pointing at my friends brother, “He made me.”

His mom approached him, bent down so they would be eye level and scolded him.

My mom chuckled.

“Mom! Its not funny! Im hurt!” I said, raising my voice.

She examined my body and placed a bandaid over the cut on my knee. She goes through about a box of bandaids a week. My sister and I are always falling from trees, laying on the sidewalk next to spots of blood. Theyre the universal booboo fixer.

She found the bee sting in my neck then rummaged through the drawer to find tweezers. Pluck. Quickly she removed the bee sting. I flinched. A tablespoon of water and two of baking soda. She rubbed this on the sting. I squirmed and whined in annoyance at the burning sensation.

Like it never happened, I ran off and played rough some more.