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Most people are probably familiar with the children's game of Red Rover. In case you aren't, or you need a refresher, I'll explain it. Two teams line up and face each other at a reasonable distant apart. Each team holds hands and in turn, calls someone over from the other team. The called person runs full force at the opposing line, and attempts to break through. If the runner is successful at breaking through the hands of the other team, he goes back to his team. If he doesn't break through, he joins that team.
When I was in my late teens, I had the opportunity to re-vist this childhood game. While it's often fun to revisit your youth, there's a reason this game should have stayed a childhood memory, as you will find out.
One of the churches I was going to (I went to 3, but that's a different story) was having their annual Vacation Bible School, aka VBS. VBS is like a week-long day camp for kids with games, crafts, snacks, etc. The pastor, Chuck, asked me if I would help out with games. No problem, I was happy to help. We took the kids outside and they all wanted to play Red Rover. There was a big yard behind Pastor Chuck's house, so we took the kids over there to play. We divided them into teams and they began the game. One of the teams took an early lead and that left the other team with only 3 or 4 kids.
I was sitting happily on the sidelines when the weaker team started begging me to join them to help. Up until this point, there was nobody on the teams over the age of ten, so you could see how having a 5'8" giant would be a huge advantage. Pastor Chuck thought it would be fun for them, so, he chimed in with the kids and I reluctantly joined the team.
I was ushered into the centre of the line, with a couple boys on one side of me and a little girl in pony-tails next to me. We stood, the kids with new-found hope, and the little blond girl grasping my hand.
The other team had the first turn, and called me over. Apparently, they either thought they were ridiculously strong, or they had no concept of strategy and physics. As they were ten year olds, I'll assume they had delusions of being ridiculously strong. I tried not to run too hard so I wouldn't break their little arms, but still easily broke through. My team shouted in victory.
Next, our turn. I didn't know any of the kids names, so I let my teammmates choose who to call. There was one boy on the opposing team who was quite small. One of those kids that looks like he gets sick a lot — he was very fair-skinned, blond and skinny. I was praying they wouldn't pick him, but sure enough, they called him over. This kid was determined. He stepped out of his line, paused for a minute, and mustered every ounce of strength and speed he had and started running at us.
I kept thinking don't come to me kid, don't come to me. I couldn't let my team down, but I didn't want to squash this kid's invincibility either. Sure enough, he was headed right for me and the little blond girl. She was holding my hand with all her pony-tailed strength. He was getting closer (it was a long yard and once again, he was small so it took a while) and his determination hadn't faded. The little blond girl was bracing herself.
He was just about to hit my arm when the worst imaginable thing that could happen at that moment, happened. The little blond girl thrust her little arm up in the air — bringing my arm up with hers — to the perfect height. . . to closeline the kid. Have you heard of inertia? Well, it was displayed at its finest. From the neck up, he stayed at the point of intersection with my arm. From the neck down, his body continued to go. His legs swooped out from under him and he went completely horizontal, about three feet off the ground, then, THUD. He landed flat on his back.
It was awful. It was brutal. There was absolute silence. My heart dropped. I thought I killed him. I really did. And I'm sure from everyone else's point of view it looked like I intentionally clotheslined the kid at the last second.
Pastor Chuck came running. Poor kid had the wind knocked out of him, he was crying, holding his neck and gasping for air. Aside from the initial trauma, he ended up being okay. After that though, whenever I saw this kid at church, he would literally go and hide. It was bad. Poor kid probably still has a fear of redheads or something.
I explained to Pastor Chuck what happened and we laughed about it later. I can't recall, but I don't think he asked me to come back the next day to help with the games, and I'll certainly never play Red Rover again.
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