Invincible

Have you ever had moments when you thought that you were invincible? Nothing could touch you, no bad thing would ever happen, simply because you were you. If you are thinking right now that you have never had one of these moments, think again. Think back to when you were in high school and I’m sure that you will remember at least one such incident. You see, thinking you are invincible seems to come with the role of being a teenager. I, for one, never thought that I was invincible, I knew that I was. At least I did until one fateful summer day when I was sixteen.
This day started out like any other, a sunny Saturday. I was hanging out with my amazingly dreamy friend Danny. He was tall and well built with strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, and a smile that could melt even the most popular freshman’s heart. I was not a freshman, but I sometimes wished that I was just so it would be ok for me to ogle at him like he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. This was not ok for a junior, and I would deny it to the grave if anyone ever tried to expose my secret desire.
Well, on this particular day, Danny and I were going to a church youth activity. We did this a lot, in fact this day was as typical as a day could get. Danny drove us from his house to the activity in his little blue junker car. We quickly realized as we drove past the lawn by the church that this was going to be a very active activity. We watched our friends running and dodging each other, some of them standing in one spot waiting for someone to rescue them from their prison.
After parking in the lot around the side of the church, I left my purse in the car because I had no desire to lug it around as I was running away from my pursuers. I wanted to be on top of my game. Unfortunately, not bringing my purse left us in quite the predicament. We didn’t have anywhere to put the keys. Danny was wearing basketball shorts so he delegated me key person because my jeans had pockets. It was obvious that he knew nothing about girl pants, so I informed him politely that the pockets on my jeans were made simply for fashion, not for holding things. This seemed to make sense to him so he thought for a minute, deciding that we would leave the keys in the glove box and leave the car unlocked. We were, of course, invincible.
Danny looked at me as he put the keys in the car and decided to console the fear that was not showing on my face by telling me, “Nothing ever happens here. The car will be fine.” I rolled my eyes in agreement. I already knew that, who did he think I was?
After closing his door, Danny and I hurried over to the lawn and joined our friends in the intensely thrilling game.
It wasn’t long before everyone else got bored with freeze tag and decided that they wanted to play Ultimate Frisbee. Ultimate Frisbee seems to be one of those games that all of the high school kids want to play because it makes them feel cool. It makes them feel all grown up, like college kids. It’s funny how playing a game can make you feel like something you aren’t. Danny had a Frisbee in his car though, and ran off to grab it as the rest of us sat down on the grass to take a breather. After a few minutes, Danny came back, empty handed.
“Where’s the Frisbee?” I asked him, curious about why his face had suddenly turned an unflattering shade of brick red.
“Gone,” he stated matter of factly, “The Frisbee is gone and the car is gone.” I began to laugh, knowing that he was joking, but no one else was laughing.
Our friend Trent, who always seemed to take control in sticky situations, stood up quickly and began giving orders, “Danny, you call the police, then follow me. Margie, you come too.” Danny was dumbfounded and had no idea what actions to take so he readily obeyed. He called the police and stated his problem, this time a little more urgently. I guess he had realized that they may not believe him if he said it as he had to us. Maybe the police would be as insensitive as I was and laugh at him. I can be a little clueless sometimes.
I now knew that our situation was serious though, so I followed dutifully behind Trent and Danny as we walked briskly to Trent’s dad’s black GMC truck and hopped in. Trent pulled out of the parking lot like a madman, the tires squealing for sympathy. He gunned it up the main street of our town, and although I couldn’t see the speedometer, I could tell from the angry faces of the people in the cars that we were passing that he was going just a little over the speed limit, and by a little, I mean a lot. On the bright side, if we got pulled over, we could let the cops know to be on the lookout for Danny’s car.
We sped along in silence for what seemed like an eternity (although we hadn’t even made it once down the street) when suddenly Danny erupted in a squeal that should never leave the lips of a male.
“My Car! Follow it!”
Sure enough, his car was passing us going the other way. Trent pulled an illegal u-turn and tore after it. We were in a real car chase. I was worried about Danny’s car, I really was, but I couldn’t help thinking about how cool it was that we were in a car chase just like what you see in the movies. We lunged after the car as the driver turned quickly into the back parking lot of Sam’s Club. Little did the thief know that this would turn out to be his downfall. Trent sped up, gaining on Danny’s little car. Just as the parking lot was coming to an end, we closed in on the car, pulling up beside it and edging it slowly toward the wall of the building. The driver of the little car gave in as he got dangerously close to colliding with the wall and slowed down to a stop. We pulled ahead of him, preventing him from starting up again, and piled out of the truck. Of course, none of us stopped to consider the fact that a bunch of teenagers probably wouldn’t scare an armed robber.
As we carefully approached the car we saw that our “armed robbers” were two teenage guys, probably barely fourteen. They stared blankly at us for a minute, than submissively got out of the car. As they faced us, one on either side of the car, they started cracking up. It was obvious that they had either been smoking something or were mentally unstable. As the passenger joined the driver on our side of the car, we learned that they had, indeed, been smoking something and that he was still clinging to the joint as though it were life itself. We looked at the pair of stoners, wondering if they even realized that they had stolen a car, and decided to inform them of their crime. As we told them that they had stolen a car, they burst out laughing again. We could tell that this conversation wasn’t going to get us anywhere so Trent called the cops and they came to take care of the young culprits. The young men continued to cackle as they were shoved in the back of the police car.
It was all over. Danny had to stay and answer some questions with the police while Trent and I decided to go back to the youth activity. It was odd how the rest of the day was so normal. No one asked about the amazing adventure we had just had, or even if Danny had found his car. They all seemed oblivious to the fact that we had been in a car chase and caught some criminals. So we simply went on playing freeze tag. Eventually Danny showed up and joined the game. He brought his keys with him this time, and clung to them as he ran around the lawn. He had learned that he wasn’t invincible, and from that day forward, he never would be. I, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced, and spent the rest of my teenage years testing the boundaries of invincibility.