The day began at Santiago Middle School where I was teaching math for the day. It was a simple day, order of operations worksheets with the occasional reminding to stay on-task. Soon the clock struck 2:50 and the day was over, yet just beginning, for you see I now begun to work for the Lord. After a quick stop at the church, I headed off to see Donny, Johnny, Garrett, and Dillon (the 4 members of “The Man Club” which officially formed the weekend before). I was met outside by Garrett, a faint young man who, at one time, I named Lloyd Christmas, on the account of his new haircut (it was similar to Jim Carey’s in Dumb & Dumber). Nonetheless, I walked inside the house and after a few minutes of air hockey and hearing that the boys tried to skip-school that day and instead watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, we played what all Man Club members play: Halo.
Yet Halo soon wore dull, for I conquered all, as expected (and if you’re wondering why my dialect seems queer, it’s due to my current reading of The Chronicles of Narnia – and in Narnia, queer is quite a proper word, meaning something of another sort than it does currently. I also pray thee to read these books, as you will find them a quite noble read).
So we went outside onto the giant trampoline, equipped with a fence around it to ensure safety (yet it is only safe when one jumps into the fence). The boys told me of this new game they had invented called “Leapfrog.” Leapfrog is a game where two people, usually the heaviest, stand on opposite sides, and the “leapfrog” stands in the other corner, as to form a triangle. There is one corner left where the leapfrog will jump. We all jump with the same rhythm and on “3”, jump into the center, all three of us. The purpose is for the two heaviest, in opposite corners to double bounce the third party, so that he flies high into the net. The first attempts with Garrett proved successful, and we jumped him high enough for him to hang on the bars that keep the net up. Mind you, these bars are at least 14 feet off the ground, 10-11 feet above the trampoline. Next Donny and Johnny took there turn and they, for the most part, jumped almost as high, except they kept losing there footing so there feet would come out from underneath them and there backs would hit the fence and they’d land on the springs (Donny and Garrett were competing for the highest jump). They deserve a lot of that though for talking back to the great aunt and uncle.
Ok, here’s where it all happened. Garrett had just jumped once, and was going for his second. I told him he needed to jump a little higher when we double bounce him so he could get underneath our jump. Well…he did. His brother and I said “1,2,3” and bounced. His 80-pound body sailed up to the bars and then cleared them by about 6 inches. Everything seemed in slow motion. I saw him go over the bars as if he was floating. The last thing I saw was him going head first into the ground outside the trampoline. Dillon and I scrambled off the trampoline to get to Garrett. He was on his back making all sorts of agonizing noises. I held his head and neck still and told him not to move, just in case he hurt his spine. Within what seemed like 5 seconds, we told one of the boys to get their aunt and call 911. I had been looking at his face the entire time until he said, “I think that arm is broken.” I looked and saw this
. “Goo!” I thought. Yeah it was definitely broken. His left arm seemed it might have been sprained a bit too. He was crying and trying to take the pain. I got him to relax by breathing in and out slowly and thinking about other stuff (other than his jacked-up wrists that was totally snapped). He even cracked a little joke saying, “I broke the record.”Eventually the fireman got there and splinted both his wrists. I drove his mom and he to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, got him eventually in a bed, and relaxed. He was watching Napoleon Dynamite when the nurse came in to put the I.V. in him. She said, “It’s going to be a quick prick and you can scream and yell and whatever you want.” He seemed to understand. She did it, and he screamed louder than anyone I’ve ever heard. Mind you, he hasn’t hit puberty so his screams are high pitched. They took x-rays and saw that both wrists were broken so he’d be getting casts on both. I then joked with him saying he’d have to have someone feed him. We laughed. I then said he’d also need to find a way to wipe his butt. We laughed, but it was more of a “that’s funny but unfortunately true.” I said I’m not doing it, but that Johnny and Donny could. He also needed to scratch between his legs but I said I’m not doing that either. Today I’m bringing him a back scratcher so he can do it himself.
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