THE BASE JUMPERS
The two young men sat on the ground with their backs up against a pine tree. The air had a nip to it as they were up over 8,000 feet from sea level. The view of the surrounding mountains was incredible thought the first of the two, Josh. The second member of the two-man team was taking long pulls from a hand-rolled cigarette of questionable origin and he wasn't sure what he felt about his surroundings. If you asked Brad, who had long hair and likely hadn't shaved in a week what he felt about the view that surrounded him he might say it was trippy.
"So you're telling me then," Josh said to Brad, "that I might as well forget it, that she's about to play the 'I only want to be friends card' on me."
"That's exactly what I'm saying dude." Brad replied. "Maria just isn't your kind of girl. She's the kind of girl that likes men who are dangerous, who are experienced, confident. Like..."
"Like you." Josh said, sounding a bit dejected.
"You said it mano, I didn't. Hey listen-" Brad paused for another pull on the smelly, smoking thing in his hand, then continued. "I've known you for ten years dude and..."
"And you still haven't discovered I have a name other than dude."
"Sorry dude... I... oh crap!" Brad started laughing like the most hilarious thing he had ever seen had just taken place as he coughed out thick smoke, which made Josh want to strangle him. Still, they were there to have fun, and in all reality, Brad was a good friend. At the very least he had been his best friend for longer than anyone else had hung around him.
"Okay man, finish that thing and let's go..."
"I'm done." Brad replied and flicked away his pleasure making device. The two ran out and jumped right off the edge of a cliff that was twenty feet away from where they had been sitting. For the first couple of seconds nothing could be heard but Josh's screaming as they fell the 8,000 feet into the canyon below. What seemed like ten lifetimes passed and then at around 3,000 feet their parachutes opened and then whipped them upwards as they filled with air and then gently brought them down into a bunch of trees.
Brad landed on the edge of a rock and broke both his ankles. He was the lucky one, Josh went into a pine tree and pulled his groin all out of kilter rather seriously. Luckily this time they had thought to have someone meet them in the canyon with a truck otherwise they would have made an unsightly pair hobbling or even crawling off towards whatever kind of medical assistance they felt they needed. They had radios but those were last resorts and there was no guarantee the rescue helicopter could get to them in bad weather which could happen at any time. Not to mention that they weren't really supposed to be base jumping in this national park.
Their ride came and had a good laugh at the base-jumpers. This kind of thing was happening all the time, and it kept his larder stocked with all the money crazy kids would pay to play these games. He was just happy no one was killed-this time.
Over the next few days the two had a lot of chances to talk as they shared a semi-private room in the local hospital. It was a good thing too, because the staff had a generally poor attitude towards perfectly healthy young kids who had to go off and kill themselves on motorbikes and hang gliders and parachutes all for a stupid thrill.
"Let me tell you man," Brad said to Josh who could barely move from the pain that even morphine didn't totally knock out but left him feeling knocked out. "I'm through with all this. You, me-we're smart, we're young. We need to get out and make some money. Get this-before I came on this trip I was talking to my Uncle. He said that there is a lot of opportunity in pawn shops these days. Instead of us buying and selling everything one season to buy the gear we need for the next, we can set up a kind of pawn shop that specializes in extreme sports equipment. We can deal in a few ounces of silver and the odd gold ring, maybe a camera or two. But we sell sports equipment, and we make money each time something comes in or goes out of the store."
