Leonard Hazard was the King, no doubt about it. Lots of people were telling him he was so good at all of the extreme sports that he should be in national competition.
What he loved was his skateboard, he could do things on it that appeared to be impossible.
There was even a local competition which he had won so easily it wasn't even a competition really, when he went up the ramp and caught air he was a good two feet higher than anyone else.
They even had an announcer that day, screaming about him, calling him "Hazard!" over the loudpeaker.
The nickname stuck.
One day he was at the park, a set of concrete stairs went down halfway, then made a sharp turn. A heavy steel railing ran down beside it, Leonard could come flying up to the top, somehow land on the railing. When he hit the turn he just tipped into it, then sailed off the end.
Sometimes he would do a spin, sometimes he would just grab air and reach down to hold the board.
Easy stuff.
He had made the run at least a dozen times before, then one morning he arrived at the park and May Lou Hansen was there.
She was barely eighteen, already she had a set of boobs that were impossible to hide. Mary Lou was just one year younger than him, in her senior year in high school.
She clapped as he ran down through the concrete section, getting very high in the air each time.
Leonard really liked Mary Lou, he decided to impress her, so he went up to the park up above and began the long run down to the handrail. He landed perfectly, completely in control.
When he hit the turn, he tipped into it, with timing that was spot on, preparing himself to do the full flip and land on his feet at the bottom, right in front of her.
Something caught his wheel, he tried to recover but then he was off.
The drop was a full eight feet, he tried to roll but never made it.
The world went dark.
The lights were very bright when he woke up, no idea at all where he was. Then he saw a shadow, it became a face looking down at him.
"Well! Good morning, young man!" A female voice said.
"Where am I?" He asked.
"You are in the hospital, it seems you had a nasty fall." Leonard tried to remember, something about being on the railing was in his head but that was all.
They brought him some food, he started to sit up but something had him tied down. He looked down and saw both of his arms were in casts to his shoulders, there was some kind of heavy bandage on his left shoulder. Looking down, one leg was in a cast, it stuck out of the covers, held up with a sling of some kind.
The nurse touched a button and the bed tilted forward. Then she began to feed him with a spoon.
"I can do it!" He protested.
"Actually, you can't, honey." She smiled, shoving another spoonful into his mouth.
Later, he took stock of things, and it wasn't good. Both wrists shattered, his right leg and knee broken, a broken collarbone. Plus four cracked ribs, which he discovered quickly when he tried to roll over slightly.
They had his arms crossed over his stomach, and the cast was one piece. He could not move his arms at all, plus his leg was strapped up in the air.
That afternoon a Doctor came in, looked him over.
"How long am I stuck here?" Leonard asked.
"About 3 weeks before we can change the casts on your arms, then another 3-4 weeks after that. Your leg can come down in 3 weeks, too."
"That long?"
"Yes, I am afraid so. You really made quite a mess of yourself, you were in surgery for over 8 hours repairing your wrists."
"Am I going to recover?" He asked.
"I don't know, son. It's going to take some time at least. I doubt you will ever get on that skateboard of yours again with that knee." The Doctor said, peering through his glasses at some papers.
Then he left.
That night he was lying there, his Mom and his brother had just left. He heard a voice at the door.
"Can I come in?" He looked up and saw it was Mary Lou. Now that was a surprise, he had maybe said four words to her in his life.
"Sure, come on in." Leonard was actually pleased that she was there.
Mary lou sat down in the chair by his bed, her hands in her lap.
"I wanted to tell you I am really sorry, I didn't think." She looked like she wanted to cry.
"Sorry? About what? You didn't do anything?"
"Yes, I did! I saw you coming as I got to the park. I was chewing a big wad of gum and I didn't want it in my mouth when you got there, so I stuck it on the railing, out of sight!" Now she did have tears in her eyes.
Oh.
No wonder.
"They said you could have died! It's all my fault!"
