Being a child of the 70s in a sleepy little town, such as Willow Groove , one had to fine creative ways to entertain yourself. This need to escape boredom only grew in intensity with the arrival of summer, when no bedtime had to be set for school. And that's why the game me and Debbie played on those summer nights can into existence.
On our street, Gilpin Drive , the whole road was lit by street lights except for the end of the street where there were no houses , just a couple bushes and a thin line of trees. At night, this section was nothing but a black abyss, and it was in that darkness we played our game. The game didn't have a name but it only had one rule, you had to ride your bike into the darkness as far as you could, until you became too afraid and had to come back. The one that made it the farthest won.
Debbie usually always beat me, because I would always let my paranoia get the best of me. I would imagine I felt something touch me on the leg or that I saw something standing by the side of the road. This would send me pedaling out of the dark and back into the street light like a bat out of hell.
That night I was determined that I was not only going to beat Debbie, and I was going to go all the way to the end . Debbie hadn't even made it all the way to the end.
We both pulled up to to the edge of the dark void, her and I on our bikes. She looked over at me and nodded, like we were soldiers about to go behind enemy lines.
"Ready, go!" she said and we both glided into the blackness .
The road itself couldn't be longer than 20 yards and ended in cul-de-sack , but when you could barely see anything in front of you , it felt like it was 20 miles long.
I couldn't have been pedaling for more than 15 seconds, when I thought I heard something moving in darkness around us.
"It's just a squirrel." I told myself, but I realized I could no longer hear the whirling of Debbies pedals beside me. Had she turned back already? The only sound now was the sound of my heartbeat in my ears.
I almost flew over my handle bars when I hit the edge of the curve. I caught myself and got off my bike. I felt prided well up in me, not only had I beat Debbie, but I had gone further than she had ever gone .
From behind me, I heard the click-click of a bicycle gliding towards me and guessed Debbie hadn't turned around after all . I climbed off my bike and grabbed the handle bars and began to turned my bike around. I was halfway done with my task when I caught the silhouette of bike and rider.
It was Debbie's bike but whoever was on it was not Debbie. I couldn't make out much but I could tell it was a large man, and not my friend . He was hunched over the bike and was pedaling slowly towards me.
I screamed and threw my bike to the side . The man jumped off Debbie's bike and copied my motion and lunged on me.
I managed to duck under his arm and took off running. I could hear footsteps be be pounding against the asphalt behind me.
Something exploded out of the bushes to my right, but I did not dare look. I kept running and the footsteps kept chasing me until exhausted and unable to run anymore, I collapsed only to look up to see a very frightened Debbie looming over me.
After me Debbie gave our statements to the police , I learned that Debbie had heard the man coming towards her in the dark. She had gotten of her bike quietly and hid in some bushes nearby. She had stayed there until she heard me scream, which had motivated her get out of the bushes and run.
That same night, the police, along with serval concerned neighbors that had been drawn out be the commotion, descended upon the dark end of the street. They didn't find anything besides Debbie's bike. My bike was no where to be found and neither was the man that had attacked us in the dark.
That night, I dreamt that I heard someone riding a bicycle slowly past my house over and over again. The next morning, the twisted remains of my bike appeared on my front lawn. Both the handle bars had been ripped off and the body of the bike had been twisted. Needless to say, me and Debbie never played near the dark end of the street again.
