My Lucky Birthday

The sun was barely beaming through the clouds. I prayed that the weather would hold up long enough for me to ride the meanest rollercoaster ever built. It was just about every eleven year old’s dream. Especially on my birthday.
As we rolled into the giant parking lot, I almost peed my pants with joy. The Flame Reaper stood out above all the other rides at Imaginationland. As I leaped out of the vehicle, I tripped into a puddle and soaked my brand new Hollister shirt and jeans that my mother bought me for my birthday. “Slow down Matt!” my mother said then giggled.

As we took our first steps into the park, a cool drop of H2O landed on my head. I knew this was a bad sign. My mother and I ignored the rain drops that would occasionally land on us and we headed straight for the Flame Reaper. The line was longer than any other theme park line I had ever seen before. After standing in the rain for an hour and a half, we had finally approached the monstrous rollercoaster.
“Uh oh...” my mother said with her eyebrows skyrocketing up to the moon and her mouth wide opened like a dentist patient.
“What’s the problem mom?” I asked. I knew the answer when I looked over and saw that her obesity was the problem. She was as round as the moon.
“I don’t fit into the seat belt honey. You will have to ride without me,” my stomach dropped when I heard the words come out of her mouth. My palms were sweaty, knees were weak, arms are heavy, there was vomit on my new shirt already. Mommy didn’t ride with me.

“CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK,” said the Flame Reaper as the train began to inch up the tracks. The black clouds continued to release large amounts of the cold rain and huge gusts of wind. If the rain started a minute earlier, I wouldn’t have had to ride this monster. The ride instructor would have stopped it for safety purposes. But no; too late. And with the rails wet and slippery, I knew this was also going to be a bad part of my day.

The lightning was as if a bomb had gone off. I felt the track shake beneath me and immediately knew something was wrong. I then thought about how this birthday might just be the worst I've ever had. We progressed inch by inch up the steep hill that seemed like it would never end. I just wanted to get off this thing as soon as possible. The rain only seemed to be coming down even harder with each tick of the coaster. Reaching the peak of the hill was a huge relief. My eagerness and anxiety was fading. Its all smooth sailing from here! I thought as I looked at the world below me. At that very moment, the worst possible thing that could happen, happened. With a huge crashing sound lightning shot down and hit the tracks in front of us. They were completely demolished. My life flashed before my eyes as the peoples screams were more piercing than a knife. It wasn’t until we plunged forward that I realized I too, was screaming along with everyone else. I tried to think of things I could do to save myself but quickly realized I was helpless. Just as we went shooting off of the tracks and toward the pond, someone, or something, had appeared in the corner of my eye.

We launched off the tracks and plunged to the murky water below us. Over all the screams I heard a man shout “Everything is going to be okay!”

I hoped the voice was right. At that moment, the whole train lurched backwards, and my head flew forward and smacked the railing holding me in place. I knew the pain would be excruciating after all my adrenaline wore off. Putting my meaningless thoughts aside I then realized we were no longer spiraling out of control toward the pond, but instead softly floating down like a feather off of an eagle. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I quickly looked around wondering how this is possible. I turn my head toward the back of the train and saw 3 large parachutes attached to the last cart where a strange looking man was standing. He was wearing cream colored tights with a black P on his chest. He was wearing a mask so I couldn’t tell what his face looked like. He was large- larger than any normal man I had ever seen before, he reminded me of some sort of superhero but I thought those weren’t real.

As we came closer to the ground I began hearing the clapping and cheering of the people who watched the whole scene unfold. As we landed, the man helped us out of our seats one by one. We all gathered around the strange man after we were out to figure out just who he was so we could give him our thanks. Everyone was cheering and clapping and telling him how thankful they were for saving our lives. After all the commotion, I had to find out for myself who this man was.

“Who are you?” I asked the mysterious hero.
“My name is parachute man,” and as he said it he pulled a cord on his costume and a parachute sprang out like a jack in the box. A big gust of wind came and took him away in the blink of an eye. I knew after that day, I will never forget Parachute man. I guess that was my lucky birthday.(964)