A DU Series... Storytime: Near Death Experiences [View all]

[retrowire]

Ya know, I believe that one of the most amazing things about life are the stories that we all live. There are over 7 billion of us on this planet right now, and each and every one of us have stories that have never been told. Some are similar, some are truly unheard of.

I think story telling is one of the most valuable things in our world. It has been since the beginning of civilization.

So I'm creating a series of OP's called "Storytime". In these threads, I'll set up a topic. Tell my own story, and then everyone is free to comment or share their very own.

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For the first OP in this series, I thought I'd start off with something that's kind of scary, kind of exciting. But this topic can also have a lot more depth to it than a "Whew! That was close." Sometimes, it can be a little bit darker.

I don't want anyone to feel obligated to tell their own story, or even read my own. You can just read, comment or even carry on with your day. No worries.

Ahem... Here we go.

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I'm going to tell you the story... Of my first near death experience.

So when I was about 15, I lived in a cul de sac with a group of friends. We all had bikes and were quite adventurous so we liked riding around our city, looking for places of interest. Those places included vacant houses, abandoned buildings, bodies of water, abandoned work sites, etc...

Well one day we went to explore a pond nearby that one of us had spotted while riding in a car, so we set off to find this neato place. It turned out that the pond was behind an abandoned house as well! Double jackpot!

So we did our usual thing, we ditched the bikes and began seeking ways inside the house. It indeed was abandoned. No furniture, barren wood paneled walls and old moldy green carpet. The most interesting thing found was an adult sized UNICYCLE!

We all took turns trying to ride the rusty old thing, but to no avail. I also found an ancient looking keychain that had the oldest looking keys on it. They looked like those old thick metal skeleton keys from the movies. Really cool. I kept 2. I still have one, the other I gave to my wife.

So the house was checked out, now it was time to look at the pond. We went through some trees on the side of the property and came over a small hill to see a pretty ugly looking pond. It was as scummy and swampy as you could imagine. We walked around the pond a bit more, thinking we could build a boat and try riding across it sometime when SUDDENLY....

Down the small hill we had just climbed, we heard the roaring engine and screeching tires of a truck in the driveway of the home we had just toured. Uh oh.

An old looking man hopped out of the drivers seat and after reaching into the bed of the truck he pulled out a mean looking SHOTGUN. He exclaimed into the air, "Who the F$%^ is on my property!?!" And fired the shotgun into the air.

He could not see us because he didn't know where to look and we were behind trees at the time. But we could see him. He was red faced mad, and very obviously intoxicated. We knew better. No way in hell were we about to come out of the woods, run past this man and grab our bikes.

So we exited the woods down the road and walked the street back to the mans property. From a safe distance we approached our bikes... He yelled "What're are you kids doing on my property? Y'all stealing anything?!"

"No sir." I replied. I figured honesty WAS the best policy. "We only wanted to see the pond behind the house, we didn't think anyone lived here."

Now here's the part where I nearly DIE.

All of my friends left their bikes in the front lawn of the property. But not me. My bike was in the backyard. I would have to pass the crazy shotgun wielding man in order to get my bike back.

I continued, "I'm sorry but, my bike is in your back yard. Can I get it?" I know it was my bike and all, but when confronted with a man that likes to shoot guns into the sky, you ask permission for about anything. He replied, "Come on and get it then."

He seemed sincere through his drunken slur. It didn't seem like he was very angry then. So I slowly went for my bike while my friends watched from the road. Remember that I was only a 100 pound, scrawny 15 yr old boy as you read the next line.

As I neared my bike, the man pointed his shotgun at me. I decided to stay calm. As I bent down slowly to pick up my bike, he got closer and kept the gun trained directly on my head. He yelled at me, "Didn't you boys see the 'No Trespassing' sign?!" I avoided eye contact and was silent as I began walking my bike down the driveway to my friends. I knew how to deal with drunks because of my dad.

Once I got to my friends he said to us, "Next time y'all wanna see the pond, just ask!"

We nodded and agreed that we would totally ask next time, (yeah right!) so we got on our bikes and hauled ass back home and NEVER went back to that place again.

If only I could have ridden the unicycle back home. That would have been epic.

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THE END

So there you have it. My first, near death experience. I have others too, but this was always my favorite story. What did you think? Did you like where the story took you? Remind you of anything? What about your story?

Thanks for reading.