A Surprise Meeting

I had taken a stroll down the town when I met Peter, an old friend and a schoolmate. It had been more than 15 years since we last saw each other. Times had changed. This was not the old peter that I knew. As a matter of fact, our friendship had changed because of the long duration-no-see, and we could only rekindle it. It was like a meeting with a stranger. Peter had grown tall and gained some weight.

After having a beer together, he challenged me to a duel – not a fight; a bmxing challenge. Back while in college, I was the best bmxer who was envied by everyone. We had several challenges with peter and other bmxers back then, and I appeared to win them all. Here we are, and Peter is suggesting a challenge. I could have easily turned the challenge down, but not for Peter. He had numerous injuries which resulted from bmxing, and was considered one of the worst bmxers in school. This means that I could have been a coward not to take the challenge.

One Week Later

We met a week later in a local park in my area which is used frequently by bmxers. I don’t know how word got around because there were a couple of fans ready to cheers us. This gave me some motivation. Among them was my girlfriend and a few of her friends.

After some warm up, it was time to show what we got. Being a veteran as I considered myself to be, I saw no reason for wearing a safety gear. We started the race amid cheers from the crowd that had gathered that morning. As usual we started at a low pace, before we started showing off our stunts.

I first tried the tabletop trick but I was quick to notice that Peter was doing it better than I did. Therefore as we gained momentum in the trail, I decided to try the backflip. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I fell on the ground heavily with a big thud and all what I could hear was laughter which came from the crowd, while some shouted to me to get up.

I couldn’t. I had injured the lower part of my back and an intense pain was coming from the injured area. Peter was the first to guess that because he dismounted from his bike and came to help. This must have made my girlfriend and others to realize that I might be hurt. ER team was called and I was taken to the hospital where I was treated and discharged.

Although, Peter was quick to remark that we should try the bmxing later when I felt better, I felt very much embarrassed and a big letdown especially to the bmxing community that used to meet in the park and many of whom who looked upon me for some coaching.