Long Past Stopping Read Online Free PDF Page B

ahead.”
    After all that talk of learning through experience and falling off things, I thought this was one of those lessons. As if I would go jump on a trampoline that was on the ground. There’s nothing like that sound your teeth make when you misjudge a jump, or think you have reached the bottom of a stairway only to find out there’s one more step.
    â€œSeriously, you can go jump on it if you want to. You can do whatever you want here.”
    â€œYeah, Ory. You love trampolines. Go jump on it…if you want to,” she was quick to add. I’d never heard her say that last part before, so it must have been for Ed’s benefit.
    â€œBut it’s not set up,” I said.
    â€œYeah, where are the legs?” Kyle added.
    â€œAh, you’ve never seen one like this before? There’s a big pit underneath. That way you don’t have as far to go if you fall off. Another example of what kids can come up with if you let them fall off a regular trampoline enough times.”
    That’s all we needed to hear. Both Kyle and I were racing to get there first. We were jumping around like maniacs, and as if to prove Ed’s theories on experiential education, after a number of midair collisions, we started taking turns. I was so consumed with trying to do a backflip, I didn’t realize that Ed and my mom had disappeared. By the time they returned, it was getting dark and I had come very close to landing the backflip a few times.
    â€œHey, guys, come here. Let’s talk for a minute,” she said. “So what do you think of this place? It’s great, isn’t it? Do you want to spend the night here?”
    She was using her you-just-won-a-prize voice again. My mind was still consumed with the trampoline, or more specifically the proximity of the tree to the trampoline. It seemed that, if you gauged the jump just right, you could probably make it, but it was hard to tell where you would land afterward. If we spent the night, though, I could work out that problem the next day.
    â€œOkay, where are we staying?” I asked.
    â€œWell, you guys are going to stay in that trailer over there with a very nice woman named Carol. She’s getting a room ready for you now. I’m going to go get a hotel room, and I’ll see you guys in the morning.”
    â€œWhy don’t we stay with you, and we can all come back in the morning?” I asked, confused about why we had to stay with a woman we had never met before.
    â€œOr you can stay here with us, Mom,” Kyle offered.
    â€œNo, I can’t stay here, but I just thought you guys would rather stay here, where it’s fun, than come to the hotel where it’s boring.”
    She had this way of telling you what it was you were supposed to do without actually telling you to do it. The choice was apparently between fun and boredom, and as much as I just wanted to go to the hotel with my mom, I knew that the right answer was “fun.” As subtle as it may have seemed to an outside observer, I knew she wasn’t asking us; she was telling us.
    â€œOkay, guys? Let’s go meet Carol.”
    When we got to the trailer, our bags had already been taken in, confirming my suspicion that we never had a choice to begin with. After introducing us to this woman, Mom hugged us and went to the hotel. Carol must have been in her late thirties and had short sandy hair. She seemed nice, but also kind of uninterested in us.
    â€œOkay, so this is going to be your room back here,” she said, leading us to the very end of the trailer, past a tiny bathroom with what looked like an operational toilet. By now I was certain there was more going on than Kyle and I had been told. It was all too weird, starting with Ed telling us where we would be eating, to my mom telling us in her matter-of-fact way how much we loved this place, to Carol referring to this little six-by-six-foot cubicle as “your room.”
    â€œSo go