Aurora Magazine 2020

Aurora Bikers, runners, and couples begin to pass us on the trail. I take a “Come on homie!”Bryce shouts as he zooms past me with a Happy Meal smile. Anthony trails right behind himwith a lot more proficiency than before. It seems the personal instruction had some benefits. Not that surprising considering Bryce helped him. I remember when he was a fresh 22-year-old skating at the university campus of Indiana Bloomington. He would tread across the smoothest, longest, and sometimes even the steepest hills he could find. That all stopped the time after he and his friend were going down an incline too fast. They had to bail and jump off their boards. While my brother’s friend had major scratches and cuts up his arm, Bryce was left with a messed-up wrist. In the moment they just laughed it off and helped each other back home. It wasn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened. Once Bryce sat in a hospital roomwaiting for his nurse to take his dinner order. I was at school when an outbreak caused my brother’s eczema to flare up. His face was covered with it. His eyes became infected and crusted shut. “I feel like I always have someone putting my face against a stove,”he said. “The burners turn on and the fire is right underneath my flesh. This is my life.” The doctors had never seen such an advanced case. They took pictures of his face for further study. If the infection ever spread to his bloodstream, he would die. My brother said he never wanted kids just to avert the possibility of them suffering. He once wore shades at his job to not scare people like the young woman who said his face made her want to cry. As we continue skating my belly screams from hunger. Having low body fat just makes you a constant garbage disposal. Anthony and Bryce are used to my constant hunger. Food is always my next mission. We all hop off our boards and throw them into the back of the Subaru, dirty wheels and all. “That was fun,”Anthony said. “We definitely gotta keep doing this until summer’s over.” We all nod in agreement and smile, sweating, exhausted, in a bit of pain. This was our summer. Eventually we no longer felt the pain. We usually would end the day in Anthony’s car watching the purple and pink sunset. Countless days would be spent like this. Just long drink of water and wipe sweat frommy eyes.

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