Saturday, January 22, 2011

thoughts of bike riding and broken bones

shared by Marlo R. Beall, her sister


When Cindy was young, she broke one of her ankles. I say "when she was young" because I don't remember exactly how old she was when it happened. My best guess is that she was between four and seven years old. I wish I was more certain about the specifics of everything that happened, but I honestly just can't remember; and I apologize to my parents and sisters if aspects of this story are incorrect...


My sisters and I were riding bikes with our neighbors. Growing up, we had a lot of fun with the kids in our neighborhood, as there were about four families that each had at least three kids around the same age as each other. Cindy and I were riding our neighbor's bike up their driveway. I was pedaling and she was sitting behind me, with her arms wrapped around my waist. For one reason or another, we fell to one side; and Cindy, the bike and I all toppled onto the concrete driveway.


It didn't appear as though either of us was seriously hurt at first. But somehow, Cindy's foot managed to get caught between the spokes of the back tire. I want to say that she was crying, having just fallen off a bike and having that bike land on top of her, but I don't recall her being too upset or it being too difficult to keep her calm. Between all the kids that were around, we managed to convince her that she was fine, and - more importantly - to not tell our parents what had happened.


Later that day, back at home, one of our parents noticed that Cindy was not walking "quite right". Rather than walking, she was more so hopping around, and she had trouble getting up the stairs. So our parents proceeded to examine her feet, her legs, and her ankles, and they could tell that something indeed was wrong. I think my sisters and I tried to convince them that she seemed just fine. In the end, the truth was revealed, Cindy got a cast, and the rest of us got in a lot of trouble.

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