Photo and text by: Corey Amaro.
It was his last class, the last time he would ride before going to California for a year.
I dropped him at the BMX site, and hollered as he pushed his bike and carried his gear towards the track, "You aren't going to do a back flip today are you?"
"No. I'll wait until you bring your camera."
Driving away I laughed at my sly move. "Gotcha!" I said to myself, "I won't bring my camera, and my boy will be safe."
Later I would recall how he didn't promise. I should have made him promise and crossed his heart, and hope to die and stick a needle in his eye. But I didn't.
He stood taller, he had a smile that only a mother's detective eye can read, "There is something going on behind that ear to ear grin."
"I did it! I back flipped!" He blurted.
"You didn't!" I gasped.
"I did, and Oh mom you wouldn't believe how scary-cool it was. My heart was pumping. You know it is wild! I did that back flip a million times in the foam pit, but WOW is it a different world doing it in the dirt."
I was speechless. Then cried a mixture of happy, sad, I-am-going-to-kill-you, happy again, thrilled and most of all proud. "Tell me, tell me all about it. How did it feel?"
He talked in details the entire thirty minute drive home:
How his head nearly touched the jump as he spun over it.
How his pedals were perfectly placed, and his speed just right.
The taste of freedom in the air, the lightness of being, the darkness of fear.
The distant bird singing as he flipped over.
The sound of the dirt as he hit the ground nearly falling over.
He was like a sparkler glowing multicolor feelings and thoughts. He had that energy bursting from him, the kind one gets when one touches something beyond here and now.
As he beamed a thousand different directions he wrapped me in one of his golden rays setting me on fire!
I wish I had been there to take a photo, but the one in my mind's eye, the description he gave was priceless:
He is ready to fly.
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Are you ready to do what you have been wanting to do?
Note: The photo above is of another rider in his club.
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