Palm Sunday 1983

Sunday

It was spring break and school was out for one week. I rode my bike and did the usual out door stuff a kid of twelve would do on a non-school day. It was about 6 pm and my mother came home from work. She had a lady with her when she entered the door. My mom introduced her to me, "Victoria this is Darlene. Darlene this is my daughter Victoria." I said "Nice to meet you". She said the same. My mom had McDonald's in her hand and walked to the kitchen to serve me and her guest Darlene. We ate in front of the Television because we didn't have a dining room table to eat on. We watched TV for a while and talked a little bit of small talk.

I went to my room and my mother followed right after me. She closed the door and told me that her guest Darlene would be moving in with us. I asked her, "Why Mom? I just met this woman." She replied back, “She’s going to rent the extra room and she is moving in tonight." "What? Are you serious? Do you even know this woman?” I complained. "Victoria, she is moving in and that's final!”, as she shouted quietly in my face. "Whatever Mom!” I said back to her.

I picked up the phone and called my friend Christine. I told her how pissed off I was about Darlene moving in. She had an idea, she said, "Let’s go skating." Just forget about it. The idea sounded good to me because I didn't want to help Darlene move in. I changed my clothes and styled my hair. Christine got to my house within an hour after the phone call. She arrived with some other schoolmates of ours. Greg, Doug, Chris, Christine and I Together walked to the skating rink. The Rink was not very far. It should've taken us only 10 or 15 minutes to walk, but someone in our group wanted to walk the hard way. The hard way consisted of going down a dirt hill which was located right next to the skating rink. The usual way would have been easier in my opinion, but school was out, the night air was warm, and there was a buzz in the air.

We were at the top of the hill that is right next to the skating rink. We walked in a single file line on a narrow path that curved from left and right. Part of the hill had washed away from the rains a week before, covering up the middle section of the dirt path. Everyone stopped and peered down the path. The trail ended at this point where the dirt became a steep slope which covered the path. The first two guys, Greg and Chris, walked down and slid a little, but both remained on their feet. The third guy Doug was actually walking his bike. He slid and the bike fell on him. He was very dirty but no injuries. I yelled down to him, “Doug, are you OK?" He said, "Yes I'm fine. Take it faster then me. The bike made me fall." I turned and looked at Christine and she looked at me. I pointed down saying, "look at my shoes." She looked down and said, "You’re wearing penny loafers. To bad you're not wearing your Reebok's." I wasn't confident about going down the hill. I was much closer to the bottom than the top and turning around at this point would just make everyone mad. So I went ahead and walked quickly down the slope. I tried to walk fast but I lost my balance and slipped. I fell hard on my left side, my leg bent completely in half. The bottom of my shoe was flush against my knee. I screamed horribly loud at the top of my lungs. My whole body felt the crunch. I knew that I had really done something bad. It felt like I had injured myself greatly.

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