It was Thanksgiving a couple years ago at my grandparents’ house. By the garage there was a little red race car that young kids could ride around in, but it hadn’t been used in years and looked like it could fall apart in an instant. Essentially, it was trash waiting to be thrown out. Some of my cousins began sitting on top of it and riding around the driveway. Soon a bet was formed. On the property there was a large hill with the sloped part facing the driveway, and the hill continued down into the woods. The bet was that whoever could take the car to the top of the hill, ride down it and stop in the driveway would get bragging rights and fifty dollars. In order to stop in the driveway and not continue down the hill there would be two people waiting at the bottom with balloons acting as airbags. I was pretty young at the time, but even I knew that this wouldn’t work. 

It was decided that my cousin Brenan would be the one to go down and Logan and Caleb would hold the balloons. The grass was wet and slick from the rain, and as he went down the hill he started to pick up speed. The little old race car was going faster than it ever had. However, the speed and weight of my cousin sitting on top proved to be too much, and the driveshaft snapped causing the car to spin out of control. As the hill flattened out and the car approached the balloons Caleb bailed out of fear of getting hit. Brenan hit one balloon and went right through it. The car smashed against the curb of the driveway and the front right wheel popped off. As he slid across the driveway Brenan tried to bail, however his efforts were in vain. Both him and the car slid down the hill and into the woods.

All three of us ran over to try and find him and see if he was okay. He crawled out from under a bush smiling saying he wanted to go down again. We all went back up the hill and began picking up what was left of the car. Although he failed to complete the objective Brenan got twenty dollars for at least trying. Although it was fun to watch him tumble down the hill he still could have gotten hurt. The situation taught me that if you’re going to going to have fun, especially while doing something stupid, you should always prepare for the event that someone could get hurt.