Knees

Knees

Shail and I were at a trampoline park on May 2, 2015. He bends his knees and jumps higher than me every time. He did a couple backflips and landed perfectly.

“How do you jump and land so perfectly, Shail?” I questioned.

“Its all about bending and using your knees, Ansh.” The next time I got my turn to dunk, I tried bending my knees, but I went too low and tumbled. He laughed and said, “Use your knees not your butt!” We both laughed and then we went to the foam pit.

He taught me how to prep myself for a jump. We started on a flat surface because he said,

“First learn on the normal ground cause then it will be easier to do it on a trampoline.” He told me to just bend my knees and stand up. I did that for 12 minutes. After that, he said,

“Now try to do the same thing but instead of standing up, swing your arms and then push up from your legs.” He said like a professional coach. I tried doing what he said, and I managed to jump higher than I ever had. I realized that I was hoping by only tweaking my knees. What I really had to do was bend my knees till an approximately 80-degree angle was formed at my knee. I practiced jumping like that for about 15 minutes. I was tired after so much exercise so I went to get some water. While drinking from the fountain, all I thought about was bend knees and release.

I went to the basketball hoop, took a ball, and went back a couple of paces. I took a step, bent my knees, and jumped.

“You touched the rim!” I heard Shail scream with the sound of excitement, joy, and contentment.

“I did touch the rim but I didn’t dunk bro,” I grumbled. I decided I would practice more and then hopefully be able to jump higher. I practiced for another 20 minutes. After that, I went to drink water again. The same words, “bend knees and release” were going through my mind. I went to the rim again and took a ball.

“You did it!!!” screamed Shail when I slammed the ball into the rim.

“Challo, let's have a competition of who can dunk more.”

“Ok bhai” Shail agreed. We decided each of us would get 7 tries and whoever completed the hardest and best dunks won. He started and completed the first two with ease. When he started his run-up for the third one, I couldn’t see him, and I put my hand out to grab a ball that was on the ground. He was running fast and in the blink of an eye, his bent knee collided with the base of my thumb and our heads collided too.

I don’t know how much time passed, but I woke up in a hospital with him next to my bed. I had realized that we both blacked out. He has a cast on his knee which was not bent, and his head was wrapped in gauze. I had a bruise on my head, but it was not covered in gauze. I asked the nurse about Shail’s health.

“He has broken his knee and he has a concussion from you guys’ crash. He won’t be able to kick with his right leg, and he won’t be able to run a lot and fast for the rest of his life. Your thumb broke his frontal plate of the knee which ripped through his muscles and ripped his ligaments and tissues. His knee was also dislocated. He also can’t bend his knees too far and he won’t be able to jump,” the nurse said blankly. I felt like a villain for breaking his knee with my thumb. One thing to know about Shail is that sports were his life. That's all he did in his free time, and he played soccer and cricket for his school. He woke up after the nurse left the room.

“Sorry bro, I never saw you running towards me,” I apologized. Shail smiled and said,

“This is life, stuff happens.” I felt so bad that I started crying. I had ruined his life by preventing him from doing his hobby and passion. The only question in my head and I’m sure in his head too, was, what will he do now?