Reconstruction of Memory- Justin Stewart

I remember the time we tried riding down Rat Road. It was a hot summer day in 2017. I was with my two friend’s Billy Bob and Jake. We were riding our bikes throughout the neighborhood. Billy rode his aunt’s bike since his bike’s tires were flattened by a sharp nail a few months before. We were doing tricks and daring each other to do stunts. But one dare proved to have been to extreme for us.

“Come on Billy we’re going to Rat road.” Jake said.

“Rat road? Doesn’t that street have a bunch of shattered glass on the ground?” I asked

“Yeah, the reason why there is a bunch of glass on the ground is because there was a car accident there like last week.” Jake responded

I remember saying, “I don’t think that we should go there, if cars can’t go down that street, bikes shouldn’t either.”

“We’ll be fine, I’ll go down the street first” I said.

          Rat Road was a really steep hill, cars were banned from going down because it was a safety hazard. Still, I  went down first, he was moving fast but he got to the bottom safely. Jake went next. He wasn’t going as fast as I was but he was still going fast enough for it to be dangerous falling off your bike here would be very bad. But he also got to the end in one piece. Next, Billy Bob went down the hill. I remember seeing him shaking in fear. He said that he wasn’t really afraid of falling because he had on a helmet, elbow guards, and knee guards. But he was more afraid of breaking my aunt’s bike. He stood at the top of the hill for what seemed like five minutes and thought over if he should do this. If he backed out, then we would’ve thought that he wasn’t “man enough.” But if he did go down the hill, He’d have the high risk of destroying his aunt’s bike. He finally decided to go down the hill. He sped down even faster than I did. While he rode down the hill, I heard and seen his tire pop. I looked down and saw there were many shards of glass inside the tire, and he lost control.  The bike and flew off but luckily for him he didn’t have any severe injuries.

Author's Note:

This story is based off of a true story that I experienced. Billy Bob represents me as I was afraid to ride down the hill with my aunt’s that wasn’t called Rat road but that was the nickname we gave it. In reality, it was a steep hill but cars weren’t banned from going up and down the hill they just chose not to. For this story, I chose to use the style of Margaret Atwood as she uses repetition to make the story more believable. I also used some of Ken Kesey’s method by making the story very descriptive so the reader can feel what the Protagonist is feeling.