That Bike

We went to my uncles house in Lancaster, California almost every summer. One particular summer we went my cousins had new bicycles. It was a great way for our Mom's to kick us out of the house and say go ride. Well I was on a bike, my cousin was on a bike, my sister was on a bike, another cousin was on a bike and my younger brother was on a bike. My other younger brother, the one just younger than my younger brother also wanted to ride but all of the bikes were too big. He said he could handle the larger ones and promptly got on the one my sister had just vacated. So he rode standing up and practically leaning all of his body to the side to which he was pedaling. We rode around the cul-de-sac where they lived up and down the short street and jumping the curbs as we went. The best thing to do for a thrill was to ride closes to the curb and jump up and down each of the driveways as they were sloped to the road. I was in the process of building up speed to make an epic jump off of on of these driveways when little brother, the one just younger than the younger brother, the one that leaned to the side while pedaling came down the same driveway that I was about to jump. I had just enough time to yell half of his name when he hit my front tire. As I mentioned I was yelling his name and he was wreaking into me so when I proceeded to fall my tongue was outside of my mouth and I bit it. What I mean is that I both bit the dust from falling from my bike and I bit my tongue. I bit my tongue so hard in fact that I had dug a small hole in it. I was bleeding profusely from my tongue and I did not notice the few other scrapes that I had on my hands, elbow and knee. I ran inside with blood dripping from my chin and tried to tell my Mom what had happened. Now with a hole in my tongue I could not tell the story very well. I really just wanted to get my younger brother, the one younger than my other younger brother, in trouble. My Aunt thought this must be very bad so she called the doctor. The doctor said they do not sew tongues unless completely detached. I stuck ice cubes in my mouth for about an hour until the swelling went down. We had noodles for dinner and because of my tongue situation I just slurpped and swallowed them, no chewing or tasting just swallowing. We went to Disneyland the next day and all I remember was that I talked funny the whole time. Ever since that day when I put a hole in my tongue I have been able to create some really cool patterns in my ice cream cones.