Free at last. Mom thought he was spending time over at weird Ernie's, Ernie's folks thought they were out camping.

"Ernie, if we hurry, we oughta make it down to Dead man's curve before those cool older guys get there in their cool cars. Maybe we'll get to see a wreck."

Ernie's old Huffy had no chance against me and my American Flyer, but I did'nt want to shake the cokes up too bad, so I let him win.

"Rats, we missed em Ern...Whaddaya wanna do now? Betcha a dime that the big kids are gonna have a bonfire down on the beach. Wanna go down there?"

"We're gonna get beat up and depants." Ernie whined...

"You're just chicken, Ern..."

The sound of the tattered baseball card hitting the spokes rumbled like the sound of a big knucklehead as I roared off toward the beach