Narrative

“Set, Go!”  The coach barked not more than a few feet from where I was standing.  Today was finally the first football practice we got to tackle.  It was very hot and humid, making you feel as though you were choking.  I sprinted to try and tackle the guy in front of me, sweat streaming down my face and breathing hard.

“Smack!”  We collided with a sound that seemed loud enough to be heard from miles away.

“That’s how its done, keep chopping your legs Grawe!”  The coach screamed as I tried to bring the ball carrier down.  He had enough power and eventually fell over top of me.  

“Alright, lets run it again!”  The coach hollered to get us excited.  “Remember to keep your legs moving.”

“Yeah.”  I replied as i got up off the ground.  When I got back on my feet I immediately  fell back down.

“What the -”  A massive pain surged through my left foot which felt like somebody had taken a hammer and repeatedly bashed my foot with it.  All my senses were concentrated on the pain in my foot, not realizing the coach was asking me what was wrong and trying to help me up.

“Stop!  My foot isn’t right, I can’t stand on it!”  I cried out in pain, I didn’t want to put any pressure on it.  I laid there for a minute to see if the pain would subside.

“Alright, were gonna help you up and move off the field.”  The coach said now with one of his assistant coaches nearby to help.  Finally, I got off the field, using the two coaches as crutches, and they set me down.

“Try to walk it out and come back when it feels better, it’s probably just a bad cramp.”

“Yes coach I will, I don’t wanna be out long, it’s the first day of hitting!”  I said excitedly not feeling as much pain as I had before.  I sat there for a few minutes and the pain was almost gone now. A couple guys from the team came over to check up on me during a break, including one of my long time friends Scott.

“You feeling any better man?”  They asked eagerly.

“Yeah there’s almost no more pain, I bet coach is right, I bet it is just a bad cramp.”  Although the pain had almost been forgotten, I would have never guessed I had broken three bones in my left foot.  The coach blew the whistle which meant break was over.

“Alright were heading back, come over soon.”  My friends said walking back to the field.

“Yeah I think I’m gonna try getting up soon and get some water and head over,” I said quickly as they ran away, excited to get back on the field.

After a couple more minutes, I finally mustered the strength to pull myself up putting all my weight on my right foot.  

“Hopefully my foot is fine now,” I thought to myself.  I took a step and as soon as my left foot hit the ground the pain returned, but even worse now.

“Owwwww!” I screamed in pain and the defensive coach ran over to see what was wrong.

“What did you do?”  He asked with little sympathy.

“I got up and my foot is even worse the before!”  I said, with the pain almost bringing me to tears.

“Okay, uh, sit here and after practice we can try and figure out what’s up.”

“Alright,”  I said knowing practice had to be over shortly.  

“If only the we had someone to help me figure out what was wrong.”  I thought to myself as the coach walked away.  

Finally practice was over and I saw my mom’s car parked by the side of the field to pick me up.

“Hey can you put my stuff in my locker for me and get my other stuff out?”  I yelled to Scott as he was walking off the field.

“Yeah,” he said and came over to get my pads.  I looked and saw my mom with the coaches walking my way.

“You could have strained a muscle in your foot,” one of the coaches said when they got to me.  When Scott returned with my stuff the coaches helped me walk to the car.

“It will be good to try to put some pressure on it,” the head coach said.

“I can’t,” I said, “It hurts too much.”

“Well at least try while we go to the car,” my mom said.

“Fine,” but the car was still 50 yards away!

When we finally got to the car the coaches suggested a sports doctor to visit.  During the next few days my mom had me try to put pressure on my foot and finally when we visited the doctor we found that three bones were broken.   I had to wear a cast for a couple weeks, and then a boot for a couple weeks.  I made a quick recovery and was able to play in the final two games that season.