Stones & Bones
STORY
&
It was Friday night and I was
grounded, so I couldn't go out.
Usually I'd hangout with a few
of my friends, go to a movie,
try picking up on girls, and
then end up skating until four
o'clock in the morning. But tonight I'm stuck lying
in my bed looking up at the ceiling thinking about
how stupid it was to tell my friend Nathan I'd
hold his weed for him. See, I don't smoke or
drink, so he asked me to hold his wood for him, I
guess that way he figured I wouldn't smoke any
of it. But what he didn't figure is that I'd forget
and leave it in the pocket of my jacket, where
my mother would find it. I swear she always goes
through my stuff, constantly looking for a reason
to bust me. The worst part was when she sat me
down and asked if pot was the only drug I was
experimenting with. I said, "Yes," but that I
hadn't had a chance to try it yet. She asked where
I got it and I told her, "Can we just drop it mom?"
Then she grounded me.
So here I am stuck in my room. At least I'm
allowed to get phone calls, but for some reason
the phone won't ring. I notice the ringer is
turned off, so I switch it on, and still no one is
calling. Finally it rings, I look over at my digital
clock, it reads 2:15. I pick it up, what's hap
pening is it's my friend Arnie, he is a typical
smart ass. The first thing he asks is, "What's
it like being grounded?"
"It's no picnic" I say
"What's all that noise?" I ask.
"Oh, check this out," he says, "me,
Nathan, and Edward met these
girls, and they asked us if we
wanted to go to a party. They
asked if we skated. We
said yes, of course.
Anyway, we get to
this party, and a
couple of the
pros from the
World team are
there. I guess
they recognized
Nathan as one
of your friends
'cause they
were asking if
you were spon-
sored and
where you
lived. They
said you
should go to
36
Weld
VS
ART BY MARK
GONZALES
the Santa Monica Courthouse tomorrow because
Rodney wanted to see about sponsoring you.
Aren't you happy?"
"Yeah," I say. "I hope my mom will let me go."
"Hoy, I gotta go, there's lots of chicks here."
"Alright, later," I say.
I hang up the phone, then I picture Arnie drunk
and trying to talk to girls that want nothing to do
with him. I look over at my movie collection, wish-
ing my VCR worked. My mom's friend just loaned
me King of the Gypsies. I guess I can watch it in
the living room tomorrow, but for now, it's the
ceiling. Then I start thinking about tricks that
would be good to do at the courthouse and
video footage I've seen of other skaters riding
there. Tricks come easy for me, what's hard is fig
uring out what tricks to do, in what order, and on
what obstacles. Sometimes I hate skating it a lot
of other skaters are around, it makes me feel like
a show-off. But tomorrow I'll skate my best, and I
don't care what anyone thinks. Maybe I'll try and
kickflip backside tailslide the four-step ledge. I'm
getting all worked up thinking of combos, and
now I have no hope of falling asleep. I finally
close my eyes.
I wake up with mom yapping at me, "Get
ready, we're going to a birthday party."
"What?" I answer. "Can I go skating with my
friends instead?"
ZFLEX
18
UTO
"I'll let you
bring your
board to the party, but that don't mean you can
take off and go with your friends," she answers.
"Alright," I say.
So
I get dressed and eat breakfast. My aunt
has a huge old house by the general hospital.
There are cool things to skate around there, but I
was looking forward to skating at the courthouse.
We finally get to my aunt's and I say hi to all of
my relatives, and happy birthday to my cousin.
One of my uncles looks at me and says, "Man,
you're getting bigger by the minute."
Then I say, "Aren't we all?"
He says, "Thare's a cooler in the back with beer
and sodas." I tell him thanks. On my way to get a
drink, one of my cousins asks to see my board. I
hand it to him. He says, "Damn, It's light bro."
I tell him, "Yeah, it makes it easier to flip and
makes it pop higher."
Then he holds the board and looks at me and
says, "I wanna show you something." He takes
me down to the basement and shows me a pic-
ture of his older brother, the one that got shot
two years ago. It's a photo of him holding a plas
tic skateboard. Then he says, "Yeah, when Tony
was little, he liked to skateboard." Then he shows
me another picture with Tony going down a hill,
and there's a man running next to him with
blond hair. I ask, "Who's that next to him?"
"That's his father," he says.
"These are cool photos," I say.
"I'll show you one of his dad's bikes, look
at that," he says to me.
I look at the photo and it's my aunt. Man
she's beautiful, she must have been about my
age in this photo, and she's standing with a baby
next to one of the toughest looking Harleys I've
ever seen. I'm looking at the photo, the colors,
the bike, how beautiful and young my aunt is, and
then the door opens all on its own. I set the pic-
ture down slowly and say, "Man I'm hungry."
"Yeah," he says. "Let's see if there's food."
So we step out from the basement into the
backyard, and there is a collection of old beat-up.
cars. My mom comes out and I tell her I'm going
skating. She says, "Okay, but don't go far."
I ask her if I can have some money for a soda.
"There are sodas here," she says.
"Well, okay," I say. "Can I have some money for
candy or a video game?"
"Okay," she says, and reaches into her purse
and gives me a five-dollar bill
I quickly put myself on a RTD bus headed
straight for the Santa Monica Courthouse. I get
there in about an hour and a half and none of my
friends are there, but Rodney Mullen and a cou-
ple of other people from World Industries are
there. I say what's up, and start skating around,
getting warmed up. It is crowded, but I
don't really know anybody, well at least
not on a personal level. So I just start
doing tricks and stuff. Then a guy with a
video camera says, "Can you do that one again?"
"Sure," I say. "But which one?"
"The nollie flip up the stairs."
I start pushing a little faster then normal 'cause
I want to go fast and land smooth, but I lag on
the pop. I land with all my weight on my front
foot, and hear it go snap. It is busted. I've been in
pain before, but this is the worst. I clench my
teeth with my eyes closed, then I open them.
Four or five skaters are huddled around me, and
the worst thing is I don't know any of them. One
says, "Damn boy, you need to see a doctor"
I look down and it is out of place. The only
thing that is going through my mind is, "Why the
fuck did I come here?"
Then Rodney asks, in a quiet, shy kind of voice,
"Are you alright?"
I look straight into his eyes and say, "I'm pretty
sure it's broke."
Then he says, in an even softer voice, "If you
can make it to our van, I'll drive to a hospital."
I say, "Would you please?" Two big guys lift me
up from under my shoulders. I figure one must be
Shawn Chevy or Salomen Ague, because both
these guys are huge. They get me to the van and
my leg is really hurting. Every time my heart
pumps blood to the swollen area, I know about it.
Rodney is driving, and another skater comes
with us, I think it may be Daywahn. I tell him to
take me to the general hospital, it's the one
where the soap opera originated from. I give him
directions, and mumble to myself, "Why?"
Then, with that soft voice, Rodney looks over
and says, "Incredibly gifted, you have so much
talent." I can't believe what I'm hearing as I stare
at my fat ankle thinking I'd rather be home watch-
ing a movie or just plain staring at the ceiling.
Finally, we are getting closer to the hospital. I
ask him to go to the emergency area. He pulls up.
puts the van in park, looks over, and with a calm
voice says, "You're gonna be alright."
Then he says, "I'll try and get a whoolchair."
The other kid stays with me. I look over my shoul-
der and say, "Have you ever been hurt bad?"
He says, "Yeah." He asks me how old I am,
then says, "Things heal a lot faster when you're
young" Rodney comes back with a wheelchair, I
get right in it, and tell them to put my skateboard
on the back of the handles. It won't hold. Then I
reach for it, and rest it in my lap. They ask, "Do
you want us to wait with you?"
"No, but thanks," I tell them. "I'm gonna call
my mom, thanks for bringing me."
"Okay, I hope it gets better," Rodney says.
Then they both get into the van and I wave as
they drive off. In my mind I'm thinking that I wish
I knew them better so
they would stay.
I wheel
myself in and tell the lady all my info, show her
my ID, she takes my pulse and all that. I also get a
name tag for my wrist. One cool thing is that it
doesn't seem as crowded as usual. I finally get to
the pay phone, but now I don't remember my
aunt's number. I guess things could be worse.
This seems unbelievable, but one of my cousins
is a paramedic, and right as I look down the hall, 1
see him walking towards me. The first thing he
says is, "Oh my God, what are you doing here?"
I explain about everything, then tell him I'm
trying to call my mom. He grabs my chair and
wheels me into this office. Next thing I know he is
handing me the phone and my mom is on it. Her
first words are, "I told you to stay close, didn't?"
"Yes, mom."
"And now what's happened?"
"I broke my ankle."
"I'll be there in a while," she says.
I hand the phone back to my cousin. I feel bad,
I would have rather got hit by a car in front of my
aunt's house than this. Then my cousin wheels me
out and stops a nurse. "Could you do me a
favor?" he says. "This is my nephew, could you
wheel him to see a doctor?"
After an X-ray, I go into a room with a kid
screaming his head off. Listening to him scream
seems to ease my pain. Then a nurse comes in
and says, "Today must be your lucky day."
"How'd you know?" I ask.
She says, "Cause I just guessed."
Then we get into an elevator, go up two floors,
and into another room. There is a kid my age with
his leg in traction, with a huge cast on it. He is
asleep. The nurse parks my movable bed right
next to him. Then she gives me some pain killers.
I tell her, "I hope these pills are just vitamins,
'cause drugs wrecked all my heroes lives."
"Like who?" The nurse asks.
My reply is quick: "Freddie Prince, John
Balushi, Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix."
After that, she tries to stop me, but I have
already swallowed them. My leg is throbbing, and
I need something to relax me for when my mom
shows up. The nurse leaves. I am resting for a
short while, then the doctor comes in with my
mother. I look at her and she doesn't really look
mad, she looks sad, like she's gonna cry. My mom
puts her right hand on my forehead, looks at me
and says, "I guess you got hurt pretty bad,
they're gonna keep you here a few nights." Then
it hits me how serious it is. We both start crying.
Then the doctor shows us the X-ray and tells us
when I am to go into surgery. I am completely
tripped out, I thought I would just have a cast.
wait a few weeks, and then be back in action.
Then I look over at the kid next to me, he starts
to wake up. The doctor says, in a very deep.
voice, "Are you up? I want you to meet David,
he's your new roommate. This is Mike."
I look up at him and say what's up. Then
the doctor says,
"You two have
very similar
breaks, but on
opposite legs. If
you were to com
bine two of your
non-broken legs, one of
you could walk out of
here. I just look down at
my leg, and am sad. The
doctor leaves, and me and
my mom talk for a while.
bring some
stuff from
וויוי
home for you.
she says
"Okay." I say. "Can you
bring movies, candy, and magazines?"
"Sure," she says. Then she gives me a hug, and
starts to leave, but I am sad. I don't really want
her to go. Who knows, she could get into an
automobile accident or something. I just have the
feeling like, who knows what could happen next?
Now I am just zoning on the ceiling. I look over
towards David, he's reading a book. He stops
reading and looks over towards me and says,
"So, how'd you break your leg?"
"Skateboarding. And you?" I ask.
"Playing basketball, which was totally stupid
'cause a month from now I was supposed to go
on tour with the American gymnastics team. I
wouldn't be so mad if I broke it in training or at a
meet. But the one time I goof off, I bust my leg."
"That's strange," I say. "Usually I'm goofing off,
and the one time that I take my skating serious
and try to get sponsored, I break my leg."
David's reply: "Wow, that is weird!"
Out of curiosity I ask, "What are you reading?"
He says, "The Jim Thorpe Story."
"I think I saw a TV show on him," I say. "I'm not
much of a reader. I just like watching TV and
going to the movies."
"Well, if you feel up to it, I have a stack of
books. It will help take your mind off the stuff
you'll be wishing you could be doing," he says.
Then I ask, "Well, what books do you have?"
David loans over and says, "You might like this
one, it's an American classic." He hands me a
book. I look at the painting on the cover, first I
see a lady's eyes and lips, and a city of lights in
the background. I open to the title page, The
Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald. Then I read
the preface: "What little I've accomplished has
been by the most laborious and uphill work, and I
wish now I'd never relaxed or looked back-but
said at the end of The Great Gatsby: "I've found
my line-from now on this comes first. This is my
immediate duty-without this I am nothing."