21 Years ago

I was 12 years old in 1987, and this is a true story.

I loved to play football as a young boy.  Still do.  I’m just a lot more sore by the end of it.  So one day in September, 1987, my sister and I and our 9 year old neighbor Mario rode our bikes about a quarter of a mile to see if our neighbor down the street “Ethy” wanted to play football.  Brian and I were closer friends than the other 2, so I was really hoping he would play.

His real name was Brian, but everyone called him “Ethy” because he was so skinny.  Lay off, it was the midwest in the 80’s.  So he said he would play.  We all ran out of his house and towards our bikes, jumped on them and took off.  I led the way, followed by Brian, my sister Amie, then Mario at the end.  As we drove toward our football field that day, “Ethy” yelled at me, “I’ll race you”, and made his way past me.

I of course sped up in an effort to win the race.  For several yards we raced next to each other, when suddenly our handle bars collided, stuck together, then catapuled us away from each other.  I immediately fell to the ground on the green grass of someones front lawn.  Brian fell the other way, into an oncoming car driving the opposite way.

He died three days later, never waking up from his state of unconsciousness.

That was 21 years ago today.  Brian was 13.

I’m 33.

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