“Totem spirit fox”
Rod says as he soaks in the final moments before his career can either plunge into the ravine of failure or launch his career to the stars. Rod calls upon the totem spirits before any risky stunts to give him strength and luck. He revs his engine a few more times to signal to the crowd that the great Rod Kimble will soon attempt a feat that only a few brave souls are willing to do. The quickly growing crowd cheers him on and will shortly turn into a loud rage if the crowd gathering continues on its exponential rate. Rod looks over the action thirsty crowd with pride. As he scans the crowd looking for any significant faces he noticed a face that sends him into an emotional roller- coaster. It was the face of a long time crush, his one true dream girl, the girl next door. Knowing that Denise was there, Rod was even more motivated to complete the jump but at the same time he wished he was buried in a hole, a hole where completing this jump didn’t matter.

“Please god don’t let me embarrass myself in front of Denise”

One last rev of the engine while he stares over the herd of people. Some hopeful of a successful jump, others hoping for a failure. Rod tries not to look in the direction of Denise just in case she can she can see the anxiety and fear in his eyes. It was too late to back out now, Rod was at the point of no return and he sets his eyes on the target, almost achieving tunnel vision. He revs the engine to six- thousand revolutions per minute to achieve the perfect launch control. As he sits on his moped, left foot on the ground, right on the break, eyes on the prize as the engine sustains a high revving hum. Rod has this habit of squinting his eyes right before take- off to achieve maximum aero- dynamics. Only veteran fans would notice this and even if the crowd was more of random people than there where core fans, the crowd had noticed the velocity increasing, eye- squinting move signaling the launch. This was it, Rod let go of the front breaks hesitantly, then rapidly takes his right foot off of the brake pedal. The rear tire spins in place throwing grass and dirt into the air. If he stayed in the same spot for another minute or two, he would have dug a hole into China. Once the traction catches the front wheel continues to enter the front part of the ramp, the back wheel catches the ramp just a split second right after the front. A tiny squeal sings as he speeds down the ramp. The wind whips his face as he emerges to the apex of the ramp. Once his front tire is past the apex, his back tire continues to fall as his front wheel is pushed to rise which causes some unsettling g- force upon his abdominal. The unsettling feeling doesn’t faze him; he rides on to an ascending conclusion of the hand built ramp provided by his amateur team. He leans forward to lower his center of gravity.

To execute this move he would have to balance his weight after the launch in midair, a perfect mixture of pushing and pulling of the handle bars. This is it, the critical point in the launch. There is little to no room for error, Rod knows that. As the front tires have left the ramp, Rod has to balance the weight on the rear wheel as if he was attempting a wheelie at the tip of the ramp. Right as the back tire leaves, Rod would have to lean forward to level out the moped, as if the motor was balanced on an invisible beam and right under his feet lays the fulcrum point. To the eyes of a spectator, the jump looks good, but only Rod knows. Rod had made a mistake. He has crossed the margin between perfection and mistake. Rod tries to analyze the situation at hand as if he could stop time whenever he pleases.

“Was it the forward push to level the motor? Did I over compensate? Or was the moped a little front heavy, front heavy to the point where I was unable to pull back?”

he realizes now that it didn’t matter. He was on a forward roll straight into the water, kind of like an unintended front flip. Crashing and possibly hurting himself wasn’t the problem, he crashed and hurt himself many times before. The problem was disappointing his audience, and embarrassing himself in front of his long time crush Denise.

Right before he made contact with the water, he and his moped were almost completely upside down. Once he was completely submerged in the community swimming pool, the crowd went silent, he thought. For a second Rod forgot that he was under water and all the land dwellers above him didn’t go silent, he just couldn’t hear them. At one point under the water, Rod realized that this is what he wanted, to be in a hole away from everyone. This hole he has himself in just happens to be filled with water.

“Just close your eyes and forget you screwed up the jump, forget the fact that Denise is probably laughing hysterically at me and probably just ruined the chance to be with her. Forget life, forget people, forget stunts, forget Denise, and forget air. Wait air?! Jesus I’m on the verge of drowning!”

As Rod desperately tries to surface, he realizes his most prized possession is at the bottom of the pool and begins to contemplate if he should just die with his beloved moped at the bottom of the pool.

“I am not a stuntman. I am a fraud, a disgrace to this prideful and respected sport. I am a failure; I for one am not a stuntman”.

Once Rod surfaces he readies himself for boo’s and disappointed glares. He looked around, the crowd was shocked. It was dead silent at the community pool and in a split second the crowd went wild! People cheered as if he actually landed the jump. People cheered as if he was a stuntman. He caught Denise’s eye, it had a worried but relieved look, as if her eyes where a mixing bowl of emotions and what you saw were the feelings she was exerting at the moment.

” You know what? I am a stuntman”.