Ethan:
Lesson of the day – watch where you’re
going while showing off on your bike; since it really hurts when you don’t and
end up hitting a tree!
The top news story for today is first up
for my report today; since that was a lesson that Miles learned the hard way
this afternoon when he did just that while showing off for the girls; and he
hit that tree with bone-breaking force.
I felt bad for Miles, but I’ll also admit that it was also awesome for
Ehlana and me; since we got to help out with Miles’ healing after we got him to
the med center while Uncle Adam supervised us.
We don’t get many real-life chances to practice our healing talents, and
while we couldn’t completely heal Miles without making a miracle happen, but we
healed the worst of his injuries; and shortened his recovery time by months.
Miles’ accident happened on one of the park
trails after we had our picnic lunch at the park. He was challenging Caroline and the other
girls; went first to prove he was the best rider; and after a pretty good ride
on the trail; he was busy taunting Caroline right before he went off-trail,
caught his front wheel in a rut; and hit the tree head-first. I took care of Miles while Ehlana and Naomi
rode to the clinic to get help; Miles was knocked out; and I only kept the rest
of our friends from doing anything that might hurt Miles. Other than wrapping him in a picnic blanket
to keep him warm – though it’s been a really hot day too; I couldn’t do
anything to help with all of our non-Magi friends around. Miles came around before Uncle Adam and Aunt
Deborah got to us; and then I was mostly out of the way once I gave Uncle Adam
the update to that point.
It took a little while to get Miles to the
clinic – Aiden and I had to go to Uncle Adam’s van to get the pole stretcher;
Uncle Adam and Aunt Deborah had to walk him out to the nearest parking lot –
after Miles passed out again from the pain; and then I had to walk and run to
the med center because we were a couple of bikes short after Ehlana and Naomi
had left their bikes at the clinic. Josh
and I gave up our bikes to Naomi and Ehlana; we took turns pushing Miles’
bent-up bike; and added carrying our backpacks when we picked them up from
where we’d set up our ‘day camp’ near the playground and river.
Miles was at the clinic shortly before Josh
and I caught up with the rest of our friends; Ehlana and I went into the room
they’d picked for Miles; and then we got to have some Magi Healing play time
after the room was safely warded and protected.
Ehlana got to partially-fix Miles’ broken collarbone; I did the same
with the upper-arm break; and we each took care of mostly-healing one of the
two broken wrist bones – a bit of a trick; since we had to make sure that the
simple fracture we did leave behind matched up perfectly so that it wouldn’t
look strange to Caylee when she did the x-rays.
That didn’t really take that long, which
worked out for our friends; since they didn’t have time to get suspicious about
why we were gone for very long. Once we
were done with hat; we got our friends to go outside and wait for Miles; gave
them the update; and then sat vigil with them until Miles was set free. Miles’ parents and sister got to the clinic
as soon as they could; his father getting there a bit after his Mom and sister
because he’d needed to drive in from the Solar-Wind farm he works at; and then
it wasn’t all that much longer before Miles was set free. He was proud of his casts and the rest of his
‘battle’ injuries, but he was also done playing for the day because his mother
ordered him home to rest and recover.
Our play day wasn’t over, but the rest of
us needed to split up and check in with our parents; and then we got together
at our house again. We decided to hang
out in the back yard for the rest of the afternoon; we went swimming a lot to
stay cool; and then we only had Naomi and Aiden stay with us for dinner. We helped with the work for that; went to the
park after cleaning up; and then we played and swam some more while Mom and Dad
were busy with their co-ed ball practice.
Cassie played with them and took the spot of an AWOL Locust; and had fun
playing with them before going on to the Inn to meet up with Michael to hang
out with him for a while. WE came home
after that; Naomi and Aiden went home with their parents after getting their
bikes from our house; and then Ehlana and I came upstairs to have baths and get
ready for bed. The end of my day has
been quiet by comparison; so let’s back up and cover the rest of the news –
starting with the play night and camping adventure last night.
I didn’t get to hang out with Ehlana very
much after getting to Aiden’s house because she moved on to Caroline’s home
after just a short visit. We set up our
tents; Aiden’s Mom had some parental support for an easy-dinner that included
hotdogs and hamburgers along with some snack and salads sides; and then we –
the guys – went to ‘not-watch’ Ehlana’s ball practice along with some biking
and playground fun before heading back to Aiden’s house for the night. We went swimming; had a campfire; and got ‘raided’
by Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim. They
‘attacked’ our camp from the river by canoe; ‘stole’ some campfire treats from
us in exchange for two scary stories; and then they moved on to raid the girls’
camp next while leaving us behind after allowing us to chase them off.
The rest of our night was a wind down from
that; though we did sneak over to the girls’ camp after Aiden’s parents ended
our campfire and sent us into our tents; we scared them – or didn’t; and then
they chased us off with threats of hugs, kisses, and girl germs. I got caught by Naomi; and won’t admit to the
other guys that I didn’t have a problem with the hug and kiss that only Ehlana
saw Naomi share with me while the rest of our friends were busy. That is not normal for most seven-year-old
boys, but then I don’t mind admitting – at least here in my journal – that Naomi’s
had me caught from the first moment we met as babies not long after Ehlana and
I were born.
Moving along, we stayed up too late playing
video games in our tents; I still got up early-enough for Tai Chi by the river;
and Aiden and I went over to the girls’ camp to do that with Ehlana and
Naomi. The girls had the idea for a play
day at the park and picnic for all of us; we eventually got around to doing
that after cleaning up our camps and getting supplies for our picnic; and then
the girls opted for a swim at the park while Miles and Josh insisted that the
guys go biking first.
I wonder how many more years that’ll be the
case before most of my friends begin to appreciate girls in swimsuits more than
biking on the trails?
Moving along, the only weird for the trail
riding was Miles choosing to try riding one of the most difficult trails that
are too-hard for us; he pretended that he actually did that instead of just
walking and sliding his way down the trail while dragging his bike along; and it’s
funny that he did that; and then got hurt on a trail that we’ve biked dozens or
hundreds of times since those trails opened at the park. We did eventually catch up with the girls
again; went for a swim to cool off; played at the playground; and demolished
our picnic. The big bike crash happened
soon after we went on that afternoon trail ride with the girls; so that brings
the story around to where I started this update; and now I’m done and ready to
go get some sleep.
Ethan – out!
***
Ehlana:
We’ve had an eventful day; but let’s try to
do this update in order – starting with our play and camping adventures that
began after my last update.
I’d say that it’s the boys’ fault that they
don’t want to hang out with the girls, but some of my girlfriends are happy not
to hang out with the boys in return; so they were happy with a segregated
camping night.
We had fun with our campsite setup once I
got to Caroline’s house; we had lots of parental help for that – including from
her Dad, Uncle, and a few of their buddies for the tent and campfire set-up;
and then we went swimming and played until we had an early dinner ahead of our
ball practices. It was hot, so I was
glad to just get through our practice; and had fun with the annoyances from the
boys when they showed up to razz us, show off on their bikes, and then play at
the playground for a while. There was
more swimming when we got back to Caroline’s house; the campfire was great
thanks to the music, girl chat time, and the ‘raid’ from Cassie, Michael,
Rowen, and Tim. We traded treats for
scary stories; the rest of the girls then chased ‘the boys’ off; Cassie and
Rowen went along; and then Naomi and I had to listen to our friends moon over
Michael and Tim for a while before we got back to the rest of our campfire.
They boys tried to scare us about a
half-hour after our campfire ended while we were in our tents; we chased them
off; and only ‘infected’ one of them with girl germs – though I don’t know
whether Ethan admitted that to any of the other guys; and he definitely didn’t
mind the hug and kiss from Naomi! We
didn’t stay awake for much longer after that; Naomi and I were up early for Tai
Chi by the river; and had fun with Ethan and Aiden while doing that – and while
the rest of our friends slept and were oblivious to our co-ed exercise
time. We also set up our plans for the
rest of the day; split up while having breakfast, breaking down our respective
campsites; and then we all split up to get donations for our picnic and play
day at the park plans.
We met up at the park; split up again into
girls and guys groups for a swim or bike ride; and then had fun together
through until after our picnic lunch.
That was when Miles and Caroline insisted on the trail ride challenge –
and that ended badly for Miles. The
trail he picked wasn’t particularly-tough, but had some ‘hills’ for jumping
bikes over; and Miles didn’t get his nickname from being grounded and
cautious. Air Miles went first; had a
pretty good fun with a few nice-looking jumps – for a seven-year-old; and then
he happily taunted Caroline; forgot to watch where he was going; and crashed
into a tree head-first.
Ethan and I sensed when his lights went
out; knew that he was really hurt; and Naomi and I went to get help while Ethan
stayed to take care of Miles until help could arrive. Naomi and I made good time getting to the
clinic; Aunt Deborah called Uncle Adam over from the lab; and we all hopped
into Uncle Adam’s minivan and headed for the far-west side of the park. We parked in the parking lot at the bottom of
the ridge not far from the river; walked in to where Miles had crashed on the
trail; and then Uncle Adam and Aunt Deborah took care of Miles from there while
Naomi and I rejoined our friends and helped to get all of them out of the park
and over to the med center. Ethan and
Josh gave us their bikes to use because we’d left ours behind; they took care
of getting Miles’ bent-up bike back to the clinic too; and then Ethan and I
went to help Uncle Adam with Miles’ healing.
We collectively decided on what we could heal
without having Miles make any miraculous recoveries; Uncle Adam took care of
the head injuries and minor fracture to his cheekbone; I partially healed the
broken collarbone and one of the broken wrist bones; and Ethan took care of the
broken upper arm and the other broken wrist bone. Miles wasn’t completely healed, but we did
save him from a summer-long recovery and surgery; so a couple or three weeks in
air casts and a sling is much better for him.
That didn’t take long; so we had a longer wait with our friends after
that while we waited for Miles to get his x-rays, casts, and to have his cuts
and scrapes treated too. He eventually
went home with his sister and parents; and we moved on to more play time after
splitting up to check in with parents and then gather at our house again.
Staying in the back yard and playing and
swimming there ended up being the choice for the time we had left before
needing to split up for dinner; and Ethan and I only had Naomi and Aiden with
us for that meal – and the park play time while Mom and Dad had their baseball
practice. We went swimming at the park
too; watched a bit of the practice; and played at the playground with some of
our cousins and friends. Naomi and Aiden
went home after getting their bikes from our house and on the way home with our
parents; and Ethan and I were sent upstairs for baths ahead of our bedtime.
It’s taken me a while to wind down since
then, so I did a bit of research before getting to this update; and now I’m
tired and ready to get some sleep. This
was both a fun and more-exciting day that we could have ever expected this
morning; and I can’t help but be fired-up about getting to actually heal
someone in a real-life situation. Ethan
and I don’t get to do that much for anything as serious as broken bones; so
that really was amazing for us.
I won’t say more, since it would be totally
wrong to wish for more chances to do that sort of thing!
That is all of the news for today, though;
so it’s time to wrap this up and get to the sleeping part of my day.
This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live
from what is now my past!
