The Story of My Life :P

The High Dive

Near the end of 2010, my older brother, Spencer, and I went to an all-nighter at our church. We were staying there until the sun was up; all physical activity and worship with absolutely no sleeping permitted. Penalty for sleeping was a facefull of whipped cream and an itchy nose, courtesy of our youth leaders, Tim and Sarah. As I've stated in other parts, I am a morning person, so I was a bit nervous about that. I don't cope well with pranks. If you prank me, I'll probably run off in a corner and cry. Not a good idea.

At the time my brother and I were in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" under the direction of the most talented and most intimidating person I've ever met. My brother played one of Joseph's brothers, an egyptian, and a slave. I played an 'adoring girl', a slave, a prisoner, and a wife. We both needed to stay safe at the all-nighter, because our show was in two and a half weeks. Pfft, yeah. Like that would happen.

We had spent the night playing games with our youth group, who happen to be about a dozen big, buff and burly teenage guys who are all in JROTC, wrestling and football. One of the games was called Gargoyles. The way it's played is that the people have to run around in the dark and find pieces of a flashlight. There are usually a lot of rooms, and the game is typically played at night. The job of the gargoyle(s) is to tag and freeze all of the players before they find the pieces of the flashlight. When you find the pieces of the flashlight and assemble it, you can use that to freeze the gargoyle(s) and win.

My friend Martin and I were the gargoyles for one of the rounds that night. It was about three in the morning. We wouldn't have been able to see anything at all, but there were dim lights in the church that couldn't be turned off at night. Those were all outside, which was where this event takes place.

My brother and our friend Hunter were the last two to be tagged. Hunter really didn't pose as much of a threat because he wasn't an incredibly fast runner. My brother, however, was. It was going to be a challenge getting him, and Martin and I had to team up to get him.

In the back of my church is a balcony overlooking a small, gated, grassy area. On either side of the balcony was a staircase. Martin and I chased Spencer up onto the balcony. Spencer was fleeing for his life; or, at least, that's what it looked like. We all met in the center of the balcony, and Spencer, seeing no alternate escape route, decided to jump over the railing.

"Going up," He panted. "Going over." And my brother plummeted down to the ground. He was falling at a funny angle, I could tell. There was no easy way for him to get out of this one.

My first thought: Wow, that's a long fall.

My second thought: Oh, no. He's going to hurt himself.

My third thought: Oh, crap. Our director is going to be pissed.

The next thing I heard was a thump and a groan.

I looked over the railing. My brother was on the grass, hugging his leg, saying: "Awww, my ANKLE!"

The next thing I knew I was down the stairs beside him, crying and trying to think of an intelligent question.

"Do you think it's broken?"

"I dunno!"

A crowd of about twenty people had gathered who had been playing the game. They were just standing there, watching the spectacle with their heads cocked to one side. When I saw them, I was angry. Why weren't they helping my brother? We needed the youth leaders.

I took a deep breath to calm myself before screaming: "GO GET TIM AND SARAH!" 

Half of the crowd sprinted through the doors to go find them. I'm typically a loud person, but when I yelled, it was like a sonic boom.  That would definitely be the Puerto Rican half of me.

A few seconds later, the youth leaders burst through the door to the back area and rushed to my brother. I was taken inside, even though I really didn't want to go. I was too emotionally attached to the situation to be of much help. It was clear that I needed to get a grip, so I got myself a cup of water and went into the gym. That was the headquarters for the event.

My brother came in a while later, with Tim helping him walk. I had calmed down completely by then. I had stopped shaking, and now that my adrenaline rush had worn off, I was completely exhausted. Sarah came over to me, looking slightly panicked.

"He's going to be okay, Natalie. Just calm down, okay? There's no need to worry." She unnecessarily consoled me.

"That's great news, but I'm cool now." I said.

"No, really, Natalie. He's fine. You can stop freaking out." Sarah insisted.

"Yeah, I got that. I'm not freaking out anymore. Anyway, have you contacted our parents?" I asked.

"Natalie, it's being handled properly. Stop trying to take over the situation." She scolded.

"I was just asking a question! Have they been contacted yet?"

"Relax! We've got it under control. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE FINE. Let the ADULTS handle this." At this point, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself. I had come to the conclusion that, at the time, she was more scared than I was. She was the one that needed consolation.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I know you've got it handled and he'll be okay." I admitted.

"It's okay. I know you're shaken up. Just drink some water and you'll be fine."

With that she walked away to check on the state of my brother.

It turns out all my brother had was a sprained ankle. I told a lot of people about the 'incident', including my friend Yesenia. She lived just down the street from the church at the time, and she told me the next time she saw me that from her house, at three in the morning, she heard a girl scream: "SPENCER!" very loudly. I hadn't even known it at the time, but apparently I had screamed that at the top of my lungs as he fell. Outdoors. At three in the morning.

Our director was angry, but not nearly as angry as he was frustrated and concerned. My brother healed enough to be able to get through the show.

Oh, and one more thing: our parents found out about the accident when they got there in the morning, which means that Sarah never called them.