Our glider had transformed itself back into a pile of lumber. Its passengers had been transformed as well, into walking burdock plants. Except Chip. He had a buzz cut, and the little Velcro balls didn't stick to his wind breaker, so he walked out of there pretty much unscathed. Sean and I weren't so lucky. We had both taken the plunge with the breeze blowing ever so gently through the flowing locks of our bowl cuts.
My mom knew what had happened immediately, and to her credit handled the situation like a true professional. She had seen worse. This time there were no broken bones, which was a relief considering I already had three broken arms under my belt and a friendly staff at the hospital who all knew me by name.
Nobody was bleeding, which was a welcome but unusual occurrence. Before the ice had melted I'd tried to skate down the frozen driveway on
actual ice skates, neglecting to take into account that the driveway
was crushed gravel, and despite the fact that it was frozen, it was not smooth at all. I had road
rash on every inch of my face except for my nose. My nose got its come-uppins. I came in the house another time with a blood pouring out of it, she'd tried to treat it like any other bloody nose until I informed her that there was actually a cut inside there. I'd slipped while cutting grain bags to make a hang glider, and managed to jam a knife straight up my own nose.
Accident prone does not even begin to describe me.
That afternoon found us out on the porch looking forlorn while my mom did her best to cut burdocks out of our hair. There was only so much she could do, really. Chip looked on, rubbing his head absently. I can only imagine what he was thinking, and I imagine it was this: Maybe the wings needed to be longer, I wonder if we were to somehow incorporate some nine-volt batteries...
And the sound of scissors echoed through the Vermont air.
Chip, Sean and I all rocked matching buzz cuts for a while. Thanks to the short memories of second graders, my embarrassment at school was limited to a few moments after Mrs. Belding made me take off my hat. People laughed, she shut them down, and that was that. Nobody messed with Mrs. Belding. Sean was a year behind us in another class, I have no idea what happened to him. He turned out alright in the end.
Maybe it was the fact that our attention spans were generally on par with that of a hyperactive dog in a room full of squirrels, but our failure to conquer the skies did nothing to deter us from pursuing other ventures. Summer vacation was rapidly approaching, and we decided we'd like to go to Florida. The best way to get there, we determined, was to take a raft. Anybody could build a raft, plus there was a river that went right through town which must eventually flow into the ocean. All we had to do was get the raft to the river and ride it to the ocean, then we'd float down the coast to Florida.
We started drawing up the plans immediately.
Previous: Part IV
Next: You might enjoy The Raft Saga - Part I
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