CHILDHOOD MISADVENTURES

We had ridden our bike to the major airport, without permission from our parents. We were in search of ‘movie money’. We had checked the phones, locker’s, and any other machine that had a coin return on it. Most time’s... before, we’d pulled out a ‘pretty good’ haul.

The ride to the airport went safely enough... and even the run-in with security had turned out pretty cool. Yeah, the day was turning out pretty well.

However, there was the blind man out front. The one who’d Vince had tossed some of our loose coin’s too. What was it that crazy acting blind man had said he had saw,

Well, it wasn’t my brother sticking his foot into the front spokes on the side of a three lane highway during rush hour traffic. Fifty ‘mile an hour’ of solid steel. What I saw, standing up in the middle lane of a rush hour highway. Suddenly, it just all made sense.

We had just about taken every red cent that could be gotten freely out of the airport’s venting machines change slot’s, and there were only twenty or thirty lockers left that had ‘key’s’ left in them (those were the ones we could check)... but we were wore out and decided to call it a day.

“Well, that’s about it. You ready to head home?” I asked my brother Vince.

“Yeah... this place is old news.” He replied.

“Then, let’s burn.” I said pointing to the direction of the exit our bike was parked at. We started heading in that direction.

It was Vince’s bike, so on trip’s like this, I had to tow him on the handlebars, be ‘he’ held onto the key to the lock, just in case we got separated. We were only twenty yards from the main exit door’s when my brother’s ‘internal alarm’ sounded and he quickly did a ‘U’ turn without my realizing it. It took me till I got to the exit to realize Vince was no longer behind me. Looking back for him, he seemed to have disappeared without a trace!

As I began to retrace our step’s, visually, I spotted him. I stopped, watching a real master at work. He was snatching up coin’s quicker than they could roll away. He was in full tilt of grabbing and pocketing the coin’s, man he was good. His hands actually moved faster than the eye could see, and he hardly ever missed what he grabbed for.

I watched as I suddenly realized he had yet ‘another’ quality I lacked... He could hold a conversation the whole time he was zipping up the coin’s.

“Hey?” Is that my money?” A man standing in front of one of the wall lockers asked my brother.

“Uh.., No. I think this change fell out of that lady’s purse...” Vince stated quickly pointing to a woman who had recently past them. Though, just as fast, it proved out to be a lie. The man ‘shifted’ slightly and even more coin’s hit the floor rolling.

“Hey! Hey! That’s my change! What are you doing?” The man started to yell at my brother.

“Um... I’m playing ‘finders-keepers’, and some good advice would be to ‘roll’ your quarters.” Vince told the man, still zipping coin’s into his pocket.

“But there ‘mine’! Coming from my pant’s!” The man told Vince.

“I know..., they don’t make pant’s the way they use too.” Vince kind of agreed with the man.

I thought the guy was going to have a ‘cow’ as the vein’s in his neck bulged out and his face had turned beet red.. He was going to grab at my brother, but something caught his attention, and he turned and walked towards the exit.. Vince, still picking up coin’s, watched the security guard advancing a little to late.

“You! Stay here.” The security officer pointed to my brother who looked to suddenly be ‘busted’!

“Oh crap!” Vince said, no longer interested in the coin’s.

“Oh crap!” I said, freely walking up to him. We were both scared.

I walked up to my brother, as two or three security officers came to pass us. In shock we watched as they brought the guy Vince had just been fleecing, in hand-cuff’s past us. Suddenly in a heavy voice, I heard,

“You boy’s need to come with us.”

“Oh crap.” Vince stated again, knowing we were dead...

“Had to make that last stab... Didn’t ya?” I asked, knowing that when they called mom and dad, I’d be grounded... FOREVER!

“It was irresistible... You know me and the sound of money.” Vince whined, as we were lead into a back office.

“Gentlemen, unload your pockets.” The officer told us.

“Aw man... Most of this is ours!” Vince protested.

“That man... Do either one you know him?” The security officer asked us.

“Uh no.” I stated.

“Not your dad or uncle?” He questioned a ‘tie’ to this man.

“Heck no! I’ve never seen him before.” Vince added.

“Here, I’m talking about him?” The security man turned on a camera that showed the man in a cell with hand-cuff’s on.

“Uh..., Yeah. That’s the man, but we don’t know him.” I said.

“Willie, is he going to press charges on us? Are we going to jail?” Vince said shaking and still unloading more silver out of his pocket’s.

“I don’t know...” I said, quivering myself as I unloaded my coin’s as well.

“Maybe you kid’s don’t understand what’s going on here.” The officer smiled at us.

This just completely unnerved Vince who was about in tear’s.. Realizing that he’d give every cent back rather than have this man call mom and dad..

“See, that man... He’s a ‘thief’!” The officer pointed to the man on the screen. Vince looked up at who this officer was pointing at... It wasn’t himself. I thought Vince was going to collapse on the spot, I held him up, as his leg’s were quite shaky.

“He’s a thief?” Vince questioned, having finally ‘unloaded’ all the coin’s in his pockets.

“Yes. A thief... we’ve been trying to capture for over two year’s. He’s been busting into our machines and robbing them for the all the change.” The officer told me and Vince.

“Oh. Thank-god.” Vince said, starting to get a picture of what was actually happening here. The officer smile at my smaller brothers outburst.

They weren’t in trouble... they were the ‘good guys’ this time. His red watery eyes began to dry up as the officer offered us a soda. Another officer was counting the money we’d coughed up, as the uniformed officer told him ‘only’ count the quarters,

“Yeah, well, I’m up to twenty-seven dollars so far, and theirs about seven or eight more left in quarters...” The other man told the officer.

“That on heck of a haul!” The officer asked Vince.

“Some of that’s ‘ours’ you know...” Vince stated, almost getting cocky.

“We know son. We’ve been watching you all afternoon on the monitors.” The man admitted to Vince.

“Hun?” Vince wondered.

“Here... I got something for you to watch.” The officer said, clicking on a video screen.

In a flash, it showed Vince coming to a sliding stop near the man who had dropped all the money..,

“That was the signature move that caught our attention. In that slide move of yours we knew there was something actually going on down there.” He said, now pointing to the screen.

“Nice slide bro.” I told Vince.

“...And ‘this’.” He stated, as Vince was zipping in all directions at once. “Is what actually tipped us off ”

“Whoa... look at you go.” I told my brother.

“See..., without your brother here... plus, that man’s pocket’s tearing open, we would have never caught him.” The officer stated.

“Oh so we did good?” I asked.

“Yes. You did good.”

“Some of that money we found. There were quarters too.” Vince pointed out the many stack’s of quarters.

“How much is there?” The officer asked the other plain clothed man counting the money.

“About thirty-two in quarter’s... and god only knows... in other change.” The man replied.

“Not a bad haul...” The man smiled at us.

“Now I think it’s time to call your parent’s.”

“NO!” We boomed out together. The man realized, suddenly, they we didn’t have ‘permission’ to be here.

“Uh sir... Is there any way, we could avoid doing that?” I asked, trying to be as ‘adult’ as possible.

“You don’t want your parent’s to know you caught a robber?” He asked.

“We’re not supposed to be here... at all.” I said.

“We just came for ‘movie money’.” Vince spoke up, his eyes starting to water over again.

“Don’t your parent’s give you an allowance?”

“Were not that rich.” I told him.

“I see...” The officer scratched his chin.

“Where do you live?” The plain clothed officer asked us.

“Rahway.” I admitted.

“Rahway! How’d you get here?”

“I towed my brother.” I told them.

“You... That’s almost... Good lord, that’s twenty miles down route one and nine!” He said, shocked we’d traveled so far by a bike.

“You don’t have to tell my butt.” Vince said, almost ready to right out start crying.

“You two stay here. We need to talk.” He said as they both walked across the room.

I watched the two of them banter back and forth about what to do with us... and about two minutes one disappeared as the other came back to us. He remained quiet as if waiting for an answer. We too, sat still as church mice, waiting.

It took a few minutes, as the man came back with a huge ‘smile’ on his face. As the plain clothed officer asked him,

“Well?”

“He’s already admitted to it. Newark police are on there way to take the scum bag to jail.” The junior office said.

“Then we should have no problem prosecuting?” The plain clothed officer asked.

“He’s already got a rap sheet... Doing ‘these kinds’ of thing’s. No, no problem.” The uniform cop said.

“Alright, that just leaves ‘these two’.” The plain clothed cop pointed to Vince and me.

“How much you say was there?” The dressed cop asked.

“About thirty-two and the other change.”

“Hmm.” He thought it over.

We sat there thinking about how they were going to call mom and dad, Vince’s eyes misted over ‘knowing’ they were going to do it.

“Okay. Let me understand this... Your not suppose to be here and you don’t want your parents to find out... Pretty sure, they’d ‘skin you alive’. Nope, doesn’t seem fair for your helping us. Hum...” He seemed to think it over. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do,

Reaching into his wallet, he pulled out a crisp twenty and a five.

Here’s twenty-five bucks... and you get to keep anything not quarters... BUT. We ‘never’ see you two up here again! Is that a deal?”

“DEAL!” Both me and Vince agreed.

“What’s this?” The junior officer asked, finding something else among the change.

“That the key to our bike.” I pointed out.

“Well, at least your smart enough to lock it up.” He handed me the key. I handed it to Vince.

The officer handed me the money out of his wallet, and scraped off the mound of dimes, nickels and pennies they never even counted into a zip-lock baggy and handed that to me as well.

“Now, this means... We don’t see you here again, ever! RIGHT?

“Right!” We both confirmed.

Now, go home.” The dressed officer said, serious as a heart attack.

“Yes sir!” Both me and Vince said in unison. He smiled at the two of us, and told the plain clothed detective,

“Escort these two out to the exit there bike’s are locked up. Then get back here, we’ve got paperwork to process.”

I held on to the plastic baggy, that held all our money, as the guard walked us back out into the main terminal. He seem to know exactly where our bike was locked up at.

“I can’t believe they didn’t call mom.” Vince whispered to me.

“Shhh!” I stated, knowing we weren’t out of the wood’s yet…

The man actually open the exit door and we walk out into freedom. As the door closed, and the officer was walking back to his office.. Vince asked.

“We’re safe now?” His eyes almost pleaded.

“Yes. I can’t believe they didn’t call mom. The ‘key’?” I asked nervously, just glad to be out of there. Tossing me the key, he asked for the baggy fill of coin’s.

“Fine, though I’m holding the bill’s. You can have the change...” I told him.

Vince walked away from me with the baggy of change. As I was taking the time out to unlock the bike the plastic bag. Vince had disappeared halfway across the entrance It seems a man holding a sign that had attracted his attention. Walking the bike over to them, Vince was reaching into our plastic bag and grabbing a second hand full of money, quickly dumped it into the man’s tin cup. The man looked quite ill, if not downright sickly!

“We ready to go?” I asked, wondering why he’d done that.

“Yeah. I had to pass on the wealth…” Vince told me.

“Thank-you young one. For that, I will tell you what I see.” He smiled up at us.

“See? Your blind?” I thought to myself. Wondering how he could ‘see’ anything.

“In my minds eye, I see ‘on this day’,” He began to speak, “.. an angel shall hold back the rolling demons of rage, while fear is trying to carry innocence out of harms way...”

The man said it directly to us, holding a stupid smile on his face the whole time.

“Okay...” I said. He didn’t speak a word after that, as Vince climbed on the handlebars and we rode away from the man.

“That was ‘strange’! Blind man ‘seeing thing’s’?” I said to Vince.

“Yeah..., I wonder what he meant?” Vince stated a bit stumped himself over the saying.

“I think he was talking about mom and dad.” I told him.

“Probably.” He said, bracing his butt for the curb ahead.

Everything seem to be going fine, as we headed down the dirt path along the three lane highway of oncoming traffic. As normal, the car’s were whizzing by.. Mom would have a cow if she ever found out we had rode this bike all the way up here... Dad would ground us and probably ‘sell’ Vince’s bike, just to make sure we didn’t do it anymore.

The traffic seemed to be slightly heavier than usual as we decided to pull into the A&W root beer stand. Vince hopped off rubbing his butt, and it gave me a chance to stretch my leg’s.

“Anything I can get you boy’s?” A pretty long brown haired girl asked.

“Vince?” I asked him..

“Root beer… Please.” He said.

“Make that two ’Root beer’s.” I told the girl, who just smiled at us. Almost to quick, we drank up the soda’s, and Vince didn’t want to use ‘his’ change, so I paid for it out of the Twenty dollar bill, the officer had handed us.

Back on the bike again, we were ‘recharged’ and ready to roll. There was a light here, and I used it to cross the street, thinking that riding ‘with traffic’, the sheer winds would help push us down the path along the side of the road.

“I wish we could ride in the street.” Vince said, as the small clumps of grass caused pain to his rear-end.

“We’ve been over this. It’s way too dangerous.” I said, trying to keep the pedal’s turning, while trying to look over his shoulder at the path ahead.

The conversation between us stopped as I used the concentration to gain a little speed down the path. Suddenly, I no longer was on the bike.... I was flying! I must have been ten foot in mid-air! ‘Where’d the bike go?’ I wondered, realizing the cement road was coming straight at my face.

Though the airborne flight was in slow motion, it was to late to react now. With a ‘thud’, my head bounced off the street. I rolled over twice before coming to a stop. In a flash, or so it seemed, I jumped to my feet. Turning to face the traffic must be ten foot away at fifty miles per hour!

I cleared my eyes as I stared at empty road ahead. Was I facing the wrong way? I turned around... No, that wasn’t the right way to face oncoming traffic... I quickly turned around again.

Looking far down the road, there wasn’t a single car for over a half mile, maybe more... In any of the three lanes!

I was standing in the middle lane. My head was ringing and felt broken! I suddenly got dizzy, wanting to collapse. I knew if I did, I’d die.

I looked to see what had happened to Vince and the bike... His screams finally penetrated my ears as my eyes had gone blurry.

“Vince! Vince!” I said holding my head, and seeing stars, tweedy bird’s and all kinds of other thing’s floating around my head.

“Willie! Willie! My foot!” Vince screamed.

“What happened?” I screamed out. Trying to make sure that there were ‘no cars’ barreling down on me.

Looking now at Vince, my eyes all blurry. I felt as if I had to clean them. Wiping my eyes, I realized ‘blood’ laced my knuckles. I must have been hurt bad. Vince laid in the first lane of traffic the bike had him ‘well trapped’ underneath it. His leg had gotten all twisted up into the front fork’s, dragged through by the spokes.

“My foot! My foot! Help Willie... It hurts so bad!” Vince buried his arms around his own head.

“I’m coming... Hold on bro.” I said, realizing I was walking like drunken sailor towards the mangled bike.

Dazed, I made my way over to him. I realized ‘somewhere’ we didn’t have much time.

“Man what a wipe-out!” I said, trying to assess the best way to handle this. My forehead was split. There was about a quarter inch gash on top of a lump.

“My foot! Get it out!” Vince said, in his own hell.

“I got to get us out of traffic. First, got to move you.” I said realizing that traffic was now heading our way, FAST!

“It hurt’s! Oh god it hurt’s” He screamed, tears streaming down his face, unable to move his foot.

“I know, grab onto me. Just grab onto me!” I instructed of him. Wrapping his arms too tightly around my neck, I realized it was now time to ‘go or die’.

Lifting him and the bike together, I stepped up onto the side of the road and out of traffic. Trying not to just drop him or the bike. I slowly collapsed onto my knee’s. We were out of harm’s way. Then, I must have blacked out for a moment or two.

Regaining consciousness, the traffic was again whizzing by and my brother was now in tears screaming my name.

“I’m here. I hear you!” I said, drawing myself back up to a sitting position.

“Willie... My foot! It’s stuck in the front tire! It hurt’s. Hurt’s so bad!” Vince whined.

“It Okay... we’re safe. Just hold on.” I said, trying to clear my head. A thumping hammer rocked my head. It played in tune with my pulse.. I looked over my brother predicament.

“What the hell happened?” I asked confused as to how this could have happened.

“My foot! It got sucked into the wheel. It hurt’s!” He was bawling now.

“Alright, it’s alright... I’m right here. Let’s get your foot out.” I stated, suddenly realizing that wasn’t going to be as easy as I had made it sound.

“Easy! It hurt’s Willie.. Oh! You’re bleeding!” Vince said getting scared for me.

“I’m fine... a little blood, that’s all.” I tried to sooth him.

It had sucked his foot through the forks all the way up to his knee! The spokes had his leg well wedged.

“Oh crap. Vince, I’m going to need your help here.” I stated, not sure how to tackle this.

“It hurt’s! So bad!” He just kept saying.

I peeled his shoe off, and began to bend away the spokes that were clearly broken, as the traffic whizzed past us. Slowly, I got his leg backed through the fork’s, but had a hard time getting his foot through. He started screaming as I slightly tried to force it through. It wasn’t working.

“Hold on... I’m going to have to break another spoke.” I said, stabilizing the tire with my feet and pulling the single spoke with both of my hand’s. In a snap, it gave way.

Vince’s eye lit up in a sudden stab of pain. But, it gave the room needed to retrieve his foot out. Slowly, we both pulled it free, as Vince, glad to be away from the mangled bike, cried freely, holding his own foot.

“Oh man it hurt’s!” Vince sobbed, grabbing at his own ankle.

“I’m not feeling to chipper either.” I said, as he realized the goose egg on my forehead.

“I want to go home.” Vince sobbed.

I looked at the bike. Oh, this might take some work!

“I’ll see if I can fix the bike... Just ‘hang tight’.” I told him, dragging myself over to the twisted up front wheel.

The truck’s and car’s zipped by not even noticing us. It truly was a cold world. I twisted and bent spoke’s so as the wheel would spin without rubbing. I had to bend the wheel itself in some spot’s, surprised that the tire hadn’t popped throughout all this. As well, I had to adjust the handlebars to where they were ‘semi’ straight. Finally, though missing almost eight spokes in one span, it seemed to roll.

“I think I got it fixed.” I told my brother who now had somewhat a grip on his pain, and wasn’t crying about it anymore. “You okay?”

“It hurt’s bad. I think it’s broken.” He said.

“So is my head.” I told him.

“Your bleeding has almost stopped.” He told me.

“Good. At least I won’t bleed to death.

I stood up. The world got very dizzy to me. Now, I wasn’t so sure I could do this. I picked up the bike moving it over to where my brother sat... Still holding his foot. I offering him a hand, as he rose onto his one good foot. I told him to get on the seat. Using an arm around my neck, he climbed onto the seat. Slowly, I rolled it forward, it was slow going but we were heading home. Right now, walking was ‘fine’. Three miles left till home... No problem.

About a block of pushing, Vince made a bold statement to me,

“I think I can ride on the handlebars.” He spoke.

“Hun?”

“This is taking to long... I think I can ride on the handle bars. Just take it slow.” He stated.

“I’ll try. Are you sure?” I said, the ringing in my head, just now starting to dim out.

“Yeah... Let’s try this.” He said.

I held the bike as he slowly climbed up onto the handlebars, using me to stabilize himself as he did so. He was perched squarely on the handlebars as I slowly tried to get on the seat. The bike almost tipped over twice, scaring Vince, as well as myself. Steadying the bike, I worried weather the wheel would ‘rub’... Seemed good.

“Okay... Here we go... Keep your feet out of the spokes.” I said, checking the traffic.

“Not funny Willie!” Vince said, biting his own pain.

Two hops later, the pedals were again going around. Vince was glad about this. The bump’s were no fun to me, thinking it would be easier to walk along side the bike. My head jarred with ever clump of dirt I ran over. But slowly, we made it to our town..

Cutting down a side street that would be a lot smoother riding, Vince’s spirits lifted, knowing ‘home’ was only a few block’s away. We came slowly wobbling to a stop on the sidewalk in front of our driveway, as my brother quickly hopped off hanging onto the bike.

In a set of hop’s he grabbed the hand rail of walk up-to our house. Now, he got on his hands and crawling up the eleven stairs, almost eight foot higher to the sidewalk that lead to our huge square house. I, myself had a steep forty foot uphill driveway to look forward to... As I slowly walked the broke down bike to the backyard, a spoke wire was clicking once a turn, on the untrue-able front wheel.

My sister ‘Laurie’, (her age, smack in the middle of Vince and me) seeing Vince hopping on his one foot towards the front door, rushing back into the house screaming mom’s name. As disheveled as I felt, it took all my strength to push the bike those last few feet up the driveway.

My brother and I had made it. At the top, still twenty from the garage, my head throbbed from the large goose egg sized knot on it. I had almost thrown-up two or three times. I was broken. Limping in the back door, already checking Vince, ‘freaked’ when she turn to see me! I hadn’t as of yet wiped the blood out of my face. She almost dropped Vince’s leg, trying to get to me.

“Ow!” Vince winced.

“Vince okay?” I stupidly asked, as she stood in front of me.

“Oh my. Laurie! Taxi!” She said, realizing that the source of the blood had already clotted on it’s own.

“Already called, do we need two?” Laurie asked, shaken up herself. In minute’s the cab would be here.

. Stan was a cool cabby, half smoked cigar hanging out his mouth and always close by and soon we where at the hospital, both of us bandaged up, and him a set of crutches, and my head wrapped.

After the Taxi Tom drove us home, we finally collapsed in or own house. Mom, making dinner, we sat in front of the TV, as the blind man’s word’s blew into my mind,

“Vince? You remember what that blind man said he saw?” I asked my brother.

“Something about holding back the demons of rage?” Vince shrugged.

“Yeah! That was it... ‘an angel shall hold back the rolling demons of rage, while fear is trying to carry the innocent out of harms way..’” I stated, as my sister looked one..

“Wow, talk about ‘mystical words’!” My sister marveled.

“Man, that’s exactly what happen. I think he saw it in his head!” Vince though about it.

“What? You sticking your foot into the spokes?” Laurie questioned him.

“No... Not that, but, he knew this was going to happen to us.

“There’s something to that... because I swear, when I realized where I was standing, and looking at the traffic, way up the hazy road, seemed a fuzzy, hazy, a huge angel held the cars back… I’ll swear to it!” I told both my younger brother and my sister. It was funny, Vince realized ‘counting the money’, he hadn’t lost a nickel the whole way!

As we smiled about that fact, mom began to realize we were on the ‘busy street’.. We were soon to be grounded, for a while.. Funny, but neither me or my brother got the least bit ‘sassy’ about the grounding.

Weeks later, his crutch’s tossed aside, me and Vince offered to take Laurie to the movies. The front wheel replaced, and my sister on her own bike, we went into town... to watch a movie. Vince, again, perched on his own handle bars.

THE END