Fast Thinking, A

Juveniles are likely the ones to do something stupid when the police are in pursuit. Climbing on railcars, parked where the lumber yard and stockyards are served, on a late spring evening as a self-imposed dare is something fun to get away with. But when your friend reports that the cops are coming and you scamper towards home, the adrenaline surge fuels stupid maneuvers. An abrupt U-turn at the edge of a building, I swung my left leg and made full-throttle contact with the rolled edge of metal feed trough resulting in a bone-deep gouge along my knee cap. I limped home, lifted my pant leg to see the blood stream being soaked up by my sock and to my surprise I rather calmly announced to my mother that I needed to go the hospital.