Trick

“Hi.”

‘Hi.”

“Ya painted yar room? It’s green now. Wasn’t it plain white before?”

“Yup… well my mom painted it. She said that if I was going to have to rest in my room for a while then, I should be looking at something fun! Something new. So she moved me to the guest room. When I asked her why I had to move, she said she wanted it to be a surprise… also paint fumes are bad to breathe in constantly.”

“Oh… well fun!”

“Yup.”

“...”

“...”

“I told ya that ya weren't gonna get nothing out of it.”

“Oh, but you always say that. Also that isn’t true! After all, my room seems to be a different color. So I did get something out of it.”

“Oh, yeah sure yar room is a different color, but ya can’t get out of bed all because ya made a stupid mistake.”

“SIMON! It wasn’t my fault!”

“Oh yah, then whose fault was it, Jake?”

“Oh, I don’t know! What does it matter? You’re meant to feel bad for me, you're my friend, that is what friends do.”

“ ‘An who told ya that? I’m just trying to help ya, ya know! Maybe if ya didn’t always try an show off all the time ya wouldn’t be here!”

“OH! So you're blaming me!” 

“Whose else's fault would it be?”

“Your fault. You're the one that encouraged me to talk to her.”

“Yah!? TALK TO ER. I didn’t say to go make a fool of yarself in front of ervybody.”

“Well, then I would be just another boy. I needed to show off! She needed to be impressed.”

“Well, I don’t think she’s vry impressed with the kid who hurt himself trying to show off.”

“Maybe you're right. I’m not one to talk. I’m stuck resting in my house with both my left arm and left leg broken. I guess I should have listened to you.”

“I told ya.”

“Yeah yeah, we already established that.”

“Ya coulda just said hi.”

“I was scared I would say something stupid.”

“Yeah!? Well ya did something stupid instead, an I think that's a lot worse than saying something stupid.”

“Maybe…”

“Fine, whatever, let's get ya some fresh air. I’ll pull up yah wheelchair…Mrs. Heinberg, can I take Jake for a walk!”

“Alright, don’t let him do anything stupid.”

“I won’t. Ya ready to go outside?”

            “Yeah…I’m sorry I can’t open the door. Or stand up myself for that matter.”

“Yah, no problem. I got the door.  

I’m getting a breeze in here, did you boys leave the door open!”

Sorry miss! Anyway, why do ya need a wheelchair?” Isn’t it only yar leg that's broken?”

“Well yeah, but the doctors said something about helping my leg heal better. It was a bad break or something, plus way more comfortable.”

“So it’s because it’s more comfortable for ya?”

“Yeah I guess so,”

“Uh… before you go on that walk of yours I actually need to talk to you Simon.”

“Of course miss. What do ya need? Am I in trouble or something?”

“Without Jake, if you don’t mind, come around this corner. And don’t worry you're not in trouble.”

“See ya in a sec Jake I’ll get you that walk I promised.”

“Alright, close the door behind you.”

“Kay… well what is it that ya need.

“Okay… I need to know how Jake got hurt. He refused to tell anyone. There was no way to get the information out of him, and they weren’t sure who else was at the party except you. Please Simon I need you to tell me

“Well… er ah. Miss if Jake doesn’t want ya to know I don’t think it’s in muh place to say what happened.”

“Please Jake. I’m his mother. I need to know how it happened. Also if his doctors could figure out how he got hurt they might be able to help him better.”

“Oh alright, but ya can’t tell Jake that I told ya, okay?”

“Deal.”

“Alright so we were at this party. Jake sees this girl… and well he wanted to impress er. I told him he should just go an talk to er, but he decided to show off instead. When I realized what he was about to do I told him to stop, but instead he got up on a table and tried to do a backflip. MISS! Jake doesn’t know how to do a backflip! He can’t even do it on a trampoline. And before I knew it, he was sprawled out across da ground, and I was dialing 911. Da rest of the party guests quickly evacuated. Dey were scared of getting in trouble. I probably should have visited him in da hospital, but miss, I was too scared. I was too chicken.”

“There there. It’s all right. Thank you for telling me. You can go back to Jake now.”

“Uh… yah no problem, miss.”

“And close the door this time!”

“I will!”

“What did my mom ask you?”

“Oh nothing important.”

“What did she ask you!”

“Whoa! No need for ya to be hostile”

“I wasn’t being hostile!”

“Well if ya weren’t before now ya are.”

“Oh, calm down.”

“What! Yar telling me to calm down!? Ya need to simmer down!”

“Oh sure sure… You’re all mister good guy who could never yell! Well think again all you seem to be doing right now is yell. I got hurt trying to chase my dreams that you told me to follow .Then you show up at my house as I am resting and criticize me. You say my injury is my fault, instead of feeling bad for me, because that is what friends are meant to do! Feel bad for their friend when they get hurt, but apparently you’re not a very good friend.”

“I’m not a very good friend!? First of all what is this stereotype ya have about how a friend is supposed to act? Whatever it is; it ain’t true. I don’t have to feel sorry for ya. There ain’t a certain way I’m meant to act.”

“Well maybe there should be, because whatever you are doing here it isn’t working. All you’ve been doing all day is making me feel crummy!”

“Oh really huh! Maybe ya shouldn’t have gotten hurt then! 

“It’s always my fault huh? You never learn.”

“Oh… really? Well yar just being dumb! I don’t see why ya can ask me to cater to yar feelings every time ya get hurt. STOP BEING STUPID! IT ALWAYS HAS TO BE ABOUT YA DON’T IT!? DON’T YA THINK OTHER PEOPLE HAVE FEELINGS?”

“I would like it if you left.”

“What?”

“I said I would like it if you left!”

“Wait… but,”

“I SAID LEAVE…”

“Wait please! I didn't mean it like that.”

“OH YEAH?! THEN HOW DID YOU MEAN IT, HUH?!”

“I just uh, alright I did mean it like that. I mean that is what the words meant, but I don’t actually think that about ya.”

“If that was your apology you're going to have to do much better than that.”

“Do I really have to? I ain’t really one of those apologetic guys”

“YES you do!”

“Alright fine… I’m sorry. It ain’t realistic that I have to be sympathetic all day…”

“Simon…”

“But I don’t want to make ya feel bad. I just get carried away so easily. I hope ya know I didn’t come here to make ya feel bad. I actually came here to cheer ya up… it's just when I saw ya I was so sad about how badly ya had gotten hurt, and for me that came through as anger. I didn’t want ya to be hurt, so I blamed ya, when I should have just accepted reality. Kids do stupid things. I should know that I guess.”

“Wow… that means a lot to hear. I guess it is true you don’t have to cater to my feelings, but I don’t think I can forgive you just yet. I mean you called me dumb and stupid…Still could we forget about it today. I want to enjoy the rest of the day. Plus you did at least make a reasonable apology.”

“Have I ever told ya the story about the sled?”

“What sled story? 

“Was winter and I had grabbed my sled and headed outside. I wandered about looking for a perfect hill. Turns out there wurnt any nice hills in muh neighborhood so instead I used this hill that slightly sloped downwards. Just enough to move ya along, but not the steepness I were looking for. The hill overlooked some brambles. As long as I didn’t go too far I shant run into them. That weren’t going to be a problem though. The real problem would be getting enough speed to make it to the bottom of the hill. So I headed back to mah house, grabbed a ton of books an stacked them on da sled with me. When I went down da hill I picked up a reasonable amount of speed. An I was quite enjoying myself until I realized I was heading straight towards da brambles. There was no way for me to slow muhself down and I couldn’t jump off the sled ‘cause the books were boxing me in. So I awaited my fate… then all of a sudden da sled slowed down quite a bit.  So I pushed some of da books over and jumped off da sled. I didn’t know why I didn’t think of doing that when I was speeding towards da brambles, but anyway, da next thing I did was grab muh sled and haul it away from da brambles. Unfortunately I accidently knocked all da books off… into da snow. My ma was so mad. I had ruined so many good books. I was grounded for weeks.

“Wow… I never knew you did that. I’m not sure if that story is like mine though… you only had to face the wrath of your mom. I embarrassed myself in front of a whole bunch of people I didn’t know.”

“Yeah but… I wasn’t alone though… I was gonna leave this part out of the story, but… My entire group of friends were there.”

“Oh… never mind then.”

“Yeah…”

“Anyway, how about you take me on that walk I was promised.”

“Alright, come on.”

“You know I can’t wait until I’m out of a wheelchair. There is something I really want to perfect.”

“Oh yah? What’s that?”

“My backflips.”