The Great Death Bars of Wales, Maine.

When I was growing up I had what some people might call a privileged upbringing, I was raised in a large house in a rustic rural area of Wales. It was very quiet and secluded to ourselves, yet up the road and around the corner there was the school I went to originally and where I had my first act of helping a friend. It was second grade (yes I remember back to 2nd grade) and we were out at recess. So typically at recess I would join the dumb kids trying to form a shock line from the static on the slide. This time around though I had a very different thought process in mind. I was going to go play on the suicidal bars themselves the dreaded “monkey Bars”. There was a good reason that these bars were to be considered the devils lair, several kids that year already had fallen off and got hurt enough to start crying, and I don’t know if anyone else remembers but seeing someone cry in second grade resulted in everyone laughing at you for being a baby. It was the ultimate embarrassment and you would get teased for a good amount of time thereafter. I had a few good friends when I was younger and I don’t remember specifically what their last name was but I remember that their first name was Alex. On this fateful day Alex and I decided like I had said to go onto the monkey bars instead of our normal dumb antics. When we got to the monkey bars, I volunteered to Alex to go first, being young this caused a little kid debate of who goes first, well I just went for it. I grab and start dangling from the very first bar and begin to get to the second then the third, It was around the fourth bar that I realized I can’t go back and my arms were too tired to go forward anymore. Me just being a dumb little kid started to swing my legs up I wanted to be cool and like put my feet in the bars to hang. Well as I began to swing my lower body back and forth my hands hurt more and more from the friction. I had managed to get my feet up and it all went wrong after that, I fearfully let one of my hands dangle free, it was time to be really cool in my mind, I slowly let go with my second hand and it was at that exact moment I realized I fucked up. I fell head first right into the wood chips and falling from that height in 2nd grade hurts like a bunch especially on wood chips. Now like most other kids who had fallen off that, I wanted to cry. I could feel my eyes starting to get wet and then my savior, Alex, came over and picked me up and brushed me off ensuring I was okay and a couple kids saw me fall so Alex told them to shut up and get away. I was a bit sniffly at this point, but I had my friend with me that would help keep me safe, I thanked him eventually and we kept on playing, recess back then was so much longer. Alex decided that he wanted to try the death bars after what he had just seen happen to my dumbass. Alex got on the first bar but he was quicker than me so he got to 6th bar unlike me that only got to the fourth, I remember cheering him on to get to the seventh and I kept pushing and telling him that he can do it. He looked back at me with a very curious look as if my request was asking him to end his life or something. Looking back on that face he made I’m pretty sure he was just scared out of his mind to fall like I had just done. He attempted several times to remove one of his hands but each time he would have to quickly grab the bar he was on to avoid falling.Each and every second his strength was getting less and less, lets be honest here the feeling of knowing you are going to fall in a few seconds is terrifying. Alex then tried the stupidest thing I think I have ever seen to this day. Alex wanted to be a ninja, he started replicating what I had done and swinging his legs back and forth, yet I could tell he was not trying to put his feet in the bars like I had done. He kept swinging harder and harder, I could tell this was not going to end well but I kept cheering like a little kid for him to do whatever he was gonna do. Alex then while getting his legs to go forward to let go of the bar he was hanging onto. Alex’s lower half went up into the air and he went a little bit forward and his top half rotated under his lower half. Alex had just attempted to do a flip and it was while he was in mid air for a split second that he and I realized what he had just done.Alex landed face first like I had done, but his lower half tried to roll over his top half resulting in him bending in a way no human should bend back. Alex went into an immediate crying fit as soon as he hit. I could tell this was not going to be easy but I rushed down to my friend and asked if he was okay, of course he is not. I kept telling him he would be fine and that I was right there to help him although I was once again upset to be dealing with a crying person. I was relieved a bit that I was not the only one now who had fallen. I asked him if he wants me to get a teacher, as little kids calling the teacher over brought a lot of attention so everyone would most likely find out what was going on. He didn’t want a teacher at first but soon after said to go get a teacher, I ran over as fast as I could with my stubby little legs and got the teacher telling her that my friend fell on his head. The teacher took Alex inside to the nurse and it turned out Alex had a small laceration on his head from one of the wood chips. I’m very glad I decided to help my friend Alex that day because if I didn’t he would have gone home with blood in his hair and I doubt his mom would be quiet about that at school. I have always loved to help the people close to me and overtime that circle has decreased in size but it will never change the fact that I will sacrifice everything for a friend if they really need it. I love all my real ones and I will always be there no matter where I am or how old I am because that is what real friendship is.

Photo by chumlee10 on Foter.com / CC BY-SA