Flipping out

It was the summer school holiday, sun shining, no school or chasing the bell, what are some school kids to do? The possibilities are endless. From going to the mall to indulge on hours of literally nothing, hanging around in corners in our little cliques, trying to meet with girls from the neighboring schools. Or maybe the beach, its fun, there’s sand and water, to add sweetness to the taste you can slide your tongue on a frozen cold dairy concoction. But on this faithful day, me, my best friend and brother decided it was time to start training as a ninja. I don’t know why, but teenage boys really like ninjas. Could be ‘cause they look so cool and mysterious, covered from head to toe, eyes the only part exposed to the world, I like to think its so the victim gets a last glimpse of their reflection in the ninjas eyes, as the shuriken hits its mark. Admittedly, I was a big fan of the show Naruto, yeah, yeah, you know of it!! candidly speaking I would even run to places in that all distinctive style, popularized by the show, hands hanging behind you as if you’re about to take flight, the wind under your heel, as a grown man, the mental image is quite embarrassing, but thats not the embarrassing story I am here to tell you.

So, there we are, on the field of the nearby primary school, must have been around 11am. The mission for today was to learn how to do a backflip. No ninja can be truly call himself one without the aerial trick up his arsenal, like most things teenage boys do, this was partly to get us more popular with the ladies, I take no shame in that. We started of small, from my earlier training in capoeira, I knew a move called the macaco (monkey), which served to stretch you and get you in the proper form to do a backflip. It was simple, get on your knees, one hand pressed flatly on the ground, behind your back, and from the squatting position, try and propel yourself backwards, using your free hand as sort of a fulcrum. Naturally the first ones weren’t that great, very skew and unbalanced, not crisp. We did several turns of the ‘macaco’ turn for turn, to the point where we had the technique down pretty good. It had been over an hour of head spinning work, and we were confident enough to up the ante.

Now we were throwing caution in the air, all these old sayings I am using should be taken in the literal sense. As now, with one person’s hand cupped, the others leg in that make shift human-hand foot saddle, we would count, one, twO, thrEE..Then one would propel the other into the air, and the rest was up to the one airborne, to roll themselves in the air, and land on their feet. My brother was the first to go up, with his hands over the shoulders of my mate for stability, we did the countdown, and in the blink of an eye he was back down to earth, feet first. Success, his first try was a success, not bad for his first attempt ever, confidence goes a long way. Then I did, then my friend did it, sweet success again, we were flipping with joy. We continued for another hour; progress is addictive.

It had been quite some time now, the hours were rolling. Now two moves under our belt, we decided to go all out. “You reckon you can do a running flip,” proposed my friend Allister. Me and my brother looked at each other with a grin. My bro went first, a running start then a cartwheel into a flip, he went high into the sky before gravity brought him back down, he landed it, a total look of elation. “Your turn,” hollered my brother from the other end, I jumped right on it, and my application was flawless, felt like I was flying for a second, I over exerted myself adding to the height, but at least I didn’t end up on my ass..”Bro, You went so high,” my bro and mate informed me. I was happy of the new skill I learnt. Allister tried, and he also landed, thou when he flipped, he veered sideways instead of going straight back, not the prettiest, but it worked. Ok, so now we where pumped, it was just after 3pm, we gave it a solid effort. We agreed it was time to go to Allister’s and refresh. Ninjas need to eat.

The house was like a ten-minute walk, we got there and walked around the back of the house where my mate’s mum’s hair saloon was. We went and greeted the aunties; Allister’s mum was working on a client. The client brought over her two daughters, attractive little things.

“What have you guys been upto?” one asked us.

“We just been working on some flips,” said Allister proudly.

“Oh, really? Show us,” the other sister asked.

“Nando, show them the running flip,” said Allister. I was inadvertently put on the spot, I couldn’t lose face, especially in front of such pretty spectators. I mean as afore mentioned, that was part of why we were doing it, for the ladies.

The backyard was small, I walked till I was touching the fence on one side, something in me told me I did not have enough run up space, but I shrugged that thought off, so I let it rip. Ran for a bit, maybe covered 4 meters, then I did a cartwheel, and then came the backflip, well that’s what was supposed to happen anyway. Instead of flipping the proper way, BAM, I ended up landing on my neck, not too worry, no physical damage was had as such, but my ego, well, well , well….

The two young girls, got up and covered their mouths with their palms, and walked towards the house without saying a word, closing the door behind them. Almost instantly a rambunctious laughter erupted from inside the house. This was added to the laughter coming from my brother and mate, but I was already used to that. It was the look on the girls face, and the incessant laughter that still permeated through the closed door that stung a little. Tried to impress them and made a fool of myself. I picked myself up, dusted down, and had this most idiotic look plastered on my face.

The girls finally came out in the light again, still trying to suppress their smile. “I’m sorry for laughing,” one said. “Are you ok?” the other added, despite the fact they did seem genuinely concerned about my wellbeing, all though they were still biting their lips, as the laughter was still not over. Call it pride or ego, but I had to redeem myself, I put my energy into redemption and tried again. This time I landed on my feet, and not my head. The girls applauded me, at least they knew I was capable, capable of doing more that making them almost cry from laughing.

Years later, I still think back to that day, my mate and brother still remind me of it, still finding it as humorous as ever, heck, I still think it pretty funny, more so over the years. That’s the thing about embarrassment, over time it just becomes this really funny silly story you just tell people to lighten the mood, like well, how I just did know. Not flipping around these days, and trying my best not to fall head over heels. It seems the best cure for embarrassment, is just laughter.