The Things We Do & What Just Happened

Overhead Photo of Townhome In Melbourne Beach, Florida - Google Maps

I had moved to a townhome 2.4 miles south of my first apartment. This was the second place I lived in Florida. I moved to this home when I was in high school. It wasn’t by choice though. Our landlord had come over one night and told us that he was moving into our apartment and we would only have 30 days to get out. In hindsight, I believe he didn’t give us the required time to vacate. I was still able to stay in the current school system and go to the same school. My high school was located 9 miles away on the mainland.

I was in my early to late teens when I met N. He was a younger kid who lived in the same townhome complex I lived in. The townhome community had a basketball court, fishing pier, racquetball courts, tennis courts, a pool, a small grassy area to play on, and access to the beach.

I used to play football with a bunch of kids on the grassy area. It was located on a street that wrapped around into a circle. I looked on the map recently and found out that there is playground equipment with sand surrounding it now. There’s also a garage.

I visited the fishing pier many times. I was in the racquetball courts hitting the tennis ball up against the wall. They had 2 inside courts and 2 outside courts. I was on the tennis courts a lot too. I’ll talk about that some other time.

I played basketball with N. We would be out at the basketball court all the time. I played with other kids and adults as well. I also knew his brother who was older than me by at least 4 years.

One day I went over to his place. I had been to his place before. He had showed me a BB gun he had. In fact, he shot it in the courtyard outside his front door. Not a very good idea. The BBs ricocheted off the wooden fence. He got hit by one. This time, he wanted to show me something in his bedroom. I can’t remember what it was. He was starting to act strange. It was scaring me. I started running down the stairs. BIG MISTAKE! He was close on the back of me and I leaped off the stairs from like the fifth or sixth step. I forgot about the ceiling that came down close to the stairs. My head hit that piece in mid-air and I flew through the air horizontally and landed on my back beyond the stairs on the living room floor. I was writhing in pain. He wanted to call an ambulance. I told him no that I was okay. After I composed myself, we looked back at where my head hit, and there was an indentation in the wall of the low ceiling. I’m sure if I went back there today, it’s still there. So I’ll have a presence in someone’s townhome for a long time. This was at least 34 years ago.

The second story might be a little TMI but I thought what the heck. You need a good laugh. I was not laughing at the time. In fact, I was on the ground again in pain. But this was a different kind of pain. We were over by the racquetball courts and the basketball court. It should be noted that he was involved with karate. I think he even had his white robe on when we met up. I don’t know remember why it happened, I only know the result. He kicked me where a guy never wants to get kicked. ;) I stayed on the ground for several minutes. A car even drove by and never stopped to see if I was okay. Once I got home, I told my Mom what happened. I remember sitting at the dining room table. Within a few minutes, the doorbell rang. N had told his Mother what happened too and told him to come apologize to me.

Conclusion

Whenever I have to stand for long periods of time, my back hurts. Sometimes I wonder if it was that incident where I landed on my back that is causing it.

Until next time, happy reading.

-Matt

Have you ever done something stupid like jumping off stairs or something else? Tell us your story.