Wheeling And Dealing

  The first stunt I learned to preform with my wheelchair was how to ride a wheelie. My manual wheelchair was equipped with what the chair specialist called, "wheelie bars." The wheelie bars were supposed to prevent me from tilting too far back and falling. That was the idea.

  However, I saw the tiny wheeled bars as a way to impress my friends. I would tip the chair back until the wheelie bars touched the ground and then push myself around making it look as though I were balancing on just two wheels.

  My brother loved to take things one step further. He was paying close attention when the specialist showed our parents how to take the wheelie bars off so that they could get me up steep curbs. Resting on the tiny bars was not very impressive to him.

"I bet I can ride a wheelie without those stupid bars," he boasted.

"No you can't, you'll fall." I challenged.

"Can so. What will you give me if I do?" He asked.

"I'll clean your room," I offered. "And if I win?"

"I'll give you two bucks."

  I knew there was no way I could get him to clean my room so I accepted. We took my wheelchair into the kitchen where there was no carpet. Our little sister sat at the counter on one of the barstools, eating a snack.

"Can I have a turn?" she asked.

"No, you'll hurt yourself." I said.

I got out of my wheelchair and watched as my brother expertly removed the two wheelie bars. Then he got into the chair and said,

"Okay, how long?"

"An hour!" I cheered.

"No, be for real. How about count to ten. I bet I could do ten - and don't count really slow!" He said, eyeing the mischievous look on my face.

"Okay ready!" I said.

  As soon as the front wheels were off the floor I started to count.

"One.. two.. three.. four.. "

  Bang!

  The chair fell forward.

"Sorry," our sister apologized as she picked up the kitchen barstool.

"You lose!" I laughed.

"She did that on purpose, so it doesn't count!" my brother shouted.

"Fine, okay you can have another try," I said and started pushing all of the chairs out of the way. I made our sister take her snack in the living room while our brother got ready for his second attempt. I waited until he was balanced and started to count.

"One.. two.. three.. four... five..." my brother was pretty good at this.

"six.. " better draw this out.

"se-v-en... ei-ght..." oh, he almost lost it!

"ni-----ne.." just one more.

"Come on," my brother fumed.

"TEN." I yelled, but my brother didn't set down.

  Instead, he began pushing himself around the kitchen balanced on two wheels. My sister and I cheered as he smiled with triumph. He got a little too bold however, and tried to do a full turn. The chair tilted back and my brother had to reach behind and catch himself before he hit the floor. He climbed out of the chair and uprighted it.

"Told you I could do it," he bragged.

  Even though I had to clean his room, my brother taught me how to do a wheelie so that I could get myself up curbs that were too steep for my wheelie bars. I've only lost my balance twice, but being able to do a wheelie on my own is better than having barriers to prevent me from trying.