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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Gym by Night part 6(Finally!)



It turned out I had fractured my wrist. It wasn’t a very serious injury, but as I had never been really injured before, I collapsed from nervousness. I arrived at home that evening, sporting a bright pink cast.  I was enormously drowsy, so I practically fell down on the sofa in my room. What a day it had been. Why had I tried to do that back handspring? Sabrina had clearly warned me to not try it by myself. And now I had this. Ugh. This cast was already getting annoying. BRRRRING! The phone by my couch rang. I sat up weakly.
“Hello?”
“Hi.” It was Ana.
“Oh, hi.”
“Hi.”
“What’s up?”
“I was just calling to check and see how you’re feeling. I’ve fractured my wrist before and it was REALLY painful.”
“It does hurt quite a lot. But mostly I’m just tired. I’m just like, lying on my sofa.”
“I bet. Well, bye.”
“Bye.”
“See you tomorrow!”
“Ana, wait!” I cried. “We need to decide when to go into the gym and search your coach’s things.”
“Oh, can’t we just forget that? It really doesn’t matter, anyway.”
“It does. You just don’t think it does.” I heard a faint voice calling Ana’s voice in the background.
“Well can we talk about this tomorrow? ‘Cause I really have to go now.”
“Ok. Bye”.
“Bye”. I hung up, discouraged. Why was Ana always so stubborn? Didn’t she want to find out what made her coach lose his earnings? And now there was another downside. I was B-O-R-E-D! Not that THAT really fit in with this but…… “Ana! It was Alex, from the doorway. Mom sent you this fan. She said the leg inside the cast will start itching soon and the fan will help.”
Oh, mom. My mom was a nurse and always knew what to do for any health situation. 
“Well, ok. It might.”
“Which it will. When I broke my foot last fall, it itched a LOT during the night.” Being a gymnast, Alex had had lots of experience with casts and boots and things like that.
“Anyway, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” And with that, she left.
Sighing, I turned on the TV, flipping the channels. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.  Boring. Boring. Wait, here was a familiar voice. It was Tim Daggett, the announcer for NBC’s gymnastics. “What competition is this?” I said out loud. Hmm. It looked like…. The Pan American Games? “I didn’t know this was on.” I looked and I looked and I didn’t see any bars, beam or vault. All there was was a big floor mat.
I hobbled into the living room. Alex was sitting there, watching a movie.
“Hey Alex, was there a gymnastics competition tonight?”
“What? Oh well the Rhythmic gymnastics for Pan Ams is tonight.”  
“REALLY?” I have to watch this!” I bolted as fast as I could back in to my room where the tv was still on. “And here we have Julie Zetlin of America. Now this young lady went to the London Olympics last year. She was the only representative of the USA for Rhythmic Gymnastics at the Games,” the announcer was saying. Olympian??? I almost fainted for the second time that day. I watched, enthralled, until midnight, for there was a “Post-game show” afterwards, with interviews with the athletes and replays. “Kerry! You should  in bed, sleeping!” You can probably guess who this was. “Ok mom. I just want to finish watching this competition. They’re having a Post-Game show.”
“Well, if it goes to late turn it off.”
“They’re almost done.”
“Good!” She left the room.
“So we’ll see the Artistic Gymnastics, tomorrow night 7:30pm Eastern Time. We wish you all Good Night.” I switched off the tv.  I sank down in my soft bed and……. I ……. Fell…….. asleep.

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