I Can't Breathe…
Disclaimer: All places and characters referenced to the television show South Park are the property of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
The mid-morning sun brightly shone down upon the quiet town of South Park, Colorado from just beyond the mountain peaks. The previous night's dew had all but evaporated from the greenery on which it was adorned. The sun was warm, the birds were chirping, and the wind was calm. It was shaping up to be a beautiful spring day.
It's too nice out to spend all Saturday inside, Kyle thought, pondering what to do.
After discarding various ideas, he finally made up his mind.
Bike ride? Yeah! That sounds fun!
He thought about it for a little while longer.
I don't really want to go alone though… I'll go over to Stan's and see if he'll come with me, he decided.
Kyle walked into the kitchen to tell Sheila where he was going.
"I'm gonna go over to Stan's and see if he wants to ride bikes with me for a while. Okay, mom?"
"Bikes?" She sounded concerned before answering rather reluctantly, "Okay, bubi. Just remember to wear your helmet and be back before dinner."
"Okay…," he responded, annoyed by her patronizing tone, as he grabbed his helmet from the closet and exited the house to retrieve his bike.
The ride to Stan's was short.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Sharon answered the door.
"Hey Mrs. Marsh, is Stan around?"
"I think he's still up in his room."
"Stanley! Kyle wants to talk to you!" She hollered up the stairs.
"You can come in if you'd like, Kyle," she offered.
"I'll just wait out here."
About a minute later, Stan came rushing down the stairs.
"Hey, dude!" Stan greeted cheerfully.
"Hey! What are you up to?"
"Not a whole lot of anything interesting, just playing some games upstairs. You want to play with me?"
"Actually I came over here to ask you if you wanted to go ride your bike around with me for a while and enjoy this nice weather?"
"Heck yeah I do!"
"Sweet! We can come back here afterward and I'll kick your butt at whichever videogame you'd like schooled in," Kyle smirked.
"Whatever," Stan chuckled. "Let me tell my mom."
He walked back into the living room in search of Sharon.
"Mom, can I go on a bike ride with Kyle?"
"Sure, sweetie. I'll get your helmet out of the closet."
Stan grumbled at the need for a helmet as he retrieved his bike and brought it around to the front door where Sharon was waiting.
She positioned the helmet on his head before adjusting the straps and bending down to give him a kiss on the cheek.
Stan was beyond embarrassed.
"You boys don't go too far out," she warned.
"Okay…," the boys answered in tandem as they readied to depart.
"Have fun and be safe!" She waved them off.
The boys rode all around town talking, joking, and soaking up the warm spring sun.
"Man…," Kyle began as the pair were stopped at an intersection. "It would sure be nice if we could get away from all these cars, buildings, and people to actually really enjoy this ride."
"Well… We could always head to the base of those peaks out there and ride around for a bit. There are some trails out there and it's not that far away," Stan suggested.
Kyle, though reluctant at first, quickly agreed.
The two headed out of town with Stan leading the way.
The silence of the longer-than-expected ride to mountain trial was broken first by Kyle.
"Thanks for coming with me, Stan. This would have sucked alone."
"No problem, dude. I'm having a lot more fun right now than I would be playing videogames alone in my room."
They laughed as they neared the beginning of the trail.
"This is a bit further out than I thought it was," Stan conceded, looking back toward South Park.
"Yeah," Kyle agreed. "But it's already so much better without all the noise and people."
Stan nodded his head in agreement.
From what they could see of the trail it looked like it was almost better suited for a dirt bike than a pedal bike with all the steep ups and downs shrouded by trees leading to the base of the mountain peak.
"Well… We can ride up it a ways and then turn around and head back. Sound good?" Stan offered.
"Alright."
With that, the boys started off down the trail for some scenic enjoyment of the day.
Stan was leading with Kyle close by his side as they neared yet another hill a distance down the trail.
"This is turning into a workout!" Kyle huffed, building up speed to hit the hill.
"Yeah! Where did I sign up for this?!" Stan panted.
Laboriously they reached the top and began the coast down toward the next incline.
Stan was in the lead as the duo reached top speed at the foot of the hill into the valley when Kyle's side of the trail suddenly transitioned from hard-packed dirt to a loose dirt and gravel mix. This sudden change in terrain caught Kyle off guard.
"Ahh!"
He jerked the handlebars to left in a desperate attempt to correct his out-of-control wobble, but it was no use. By this time his center of balance was so out of line with bike, it turned over onto its side. Kyle hit the ground hard, still at nearly top speed, and slid for a good 10 feet before coming to a stop as his bike flipped over him and tumbled nearly another 10 feet.
"Jesus Christ!" Stan slammed on his brakes and ditched his bike to rush over to Kyle, who was still on the ground.
"Kyle! Jesus, are you okay?!" Stan supplicated, kneeling beside him.
"Ugh…," he moaned painfully, a bit disoriented from how quick everything happened.
"Kyle?!" Stan yelled, obviously worried.
After a few seconds, Kyle responded in a clearly forced manner, "I'm okay…"
His vision was blurred by the tears welling in his eyes as he tried to stand up in attempt to downplay the super wipeout he just endured in front of his super best friend.
"Oww," he sniffled, about losing his balance.
"You're defiantly not okay. That was a pretty bad wreck. Sit down."
Stan helped Kyle to a rather large nearby rock and sat him down by it. He took off his jacket and put it behind Kyle's back as a cushion barrier from the hard rock. He unstrapped Kyle's helmet and sat it to the side.
"Can you see straight? Do you remember what happened?"
"Yeah… I think my head is okay," he winced.
"Good thing our parent made us wear these stupid things, right?" He joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Heh…"
"I… I think I scraped up my leg pretty good…," Kyle squirmed looking at his shredded, blood stained pant leg.
"Let me see," Stan implored Kyle to roll up his pant leg.
"It doesn't look too bad but it is bleeding quite a bit, I think," Stan observed.
He dug around in his pockets and pulled out some wadded, unused tissues.
"Hold these on it for a little while; they should at least slow the bleeding down, if not stop it," he handed Kyle this tissues.
"Thanks…"
Stan retrieved their bikes and parked them nearby before taking a seat next to Kyle.
The two took a lengthy rest.
"I think the bleeding stopped," Kyle removed the tissues.
"That's good! Are we satisfied with the amount of time we spent outside today?" Stan laughed.
"Yeah, we should probably head back to town."
"Are you okay to ride back?"
"Sure," Kyle stood up and handed Stan his jacket.
"We can just go at a nice slow pace," Stan offered.
"I think we can go regular pace."
"Slow is your regular pace," Stan jeered.
Kyle willingly fastened his helmet as the two climbed on their bikes.
"Is that some sort of challenge?!" Kyle demanded.
"No, I'm just merely stating the fact that your normal pace is slow."
"Alright mister hotshot, first one back to the beginning of the trail wins!"
"You're on!"
They reset their bikes and readied to go.
"3… 2… 1… Go!"
The fourth graders disappeared into a cloud of dust. Pedaling hard and fast they hit the first hill, and then the second, and then the third; the leader position was hotly contested, changing hands multiple times throughout most of the race until Kyle claimed a rather convincing lead swerving around the bends of the trail headed toward the fourth and final hill. With one last intense effort Kyle cleared the remaining hill and claimed victory in doing so. The mouth of the trail was just beyond the foot of this hill. He would wait for Stan at the top.
"Take that! I win! Who's slow now?!" Kyle yelled over the hill.
Kyle waited at the top for a minute or so, catching his breath.
Stan wasn't that far behind. He thought to himself.
He got off his bike and peered back down the trail in the direction they came from.
Stan was walking his bike around the last bend before the final hill.
"Tired?" He yelled, tauntingly.
Stan's lack of an answer was concerning to Kyle.
He walked down the hill and met Stan at the base, who was breathing laboriously.
"What's wrong, dude?"
"Just… Need to… Catch…," he coughed, "Breath…"
Knowing of Stan's history of asthma, Kyle was more than worried now.
"Okay. Just sit down. Take it easy."
They took a seat right in the middle of the trail.
As the minutes passed, Stan's breathing became shallow and more forced rather than better.
He felt like a million knives were stabbing him in the chest.
"Okay, Stan… I think you should stop messing around and just use your inhaler now," Kyle beseeched.
"Can't…," Stan wheezed.
"What do you mean you can't?!"
"Don't… Have… It…," he revealed, tears streaming down his face.
Kyle panicked.
"It'll be okay. It'll be okay," Kyle comforted him by gently patting his back.
"Just lie down and concentrate on breathing for me; please, Stan," he begged.
Stan was now extremely upset.
At a loss for anything else to do, Kyle decided to do the only thing he could.
"I'm going to call an ambulance."
He quickly took out his phone. His hands were shaking so badly he missed pressing the '9' button three separate times for he came to a sickening realization: 'No Signal'. He would not be able to phone in help and they were too far away for him to manually go get help in time.
"No signal...," he said aloud.
This sent Stan into a frenzy of shaking and coughing. He knew he was most likely going to die. Asphyxiate.
"Stan! You need to calm down! Please calm down… Panicking only makes it worse," Kyle wanted to shake him.
"You'll be okay…," he said this as tears welled in his own eyes once again.
I can't just let him die! There has to be something…
Kyle's mind kicked into overdrive praying to slim chance that he could concoct some plan to save his super best friend's life.
"Did you have your inhaler earlier?"
Stan nodded his head.
"Did you have it when left for the ride?"
He nodded his head again.
Okay. So. He had it earlier and when we left. That means he lost it somewhere during the ride…
He thought about where that could be.
It could be anywhere… Unless… He had a revelation.
"Was it in your coat?"
Stan nodded his head quickly, realizing the same thing Kyle had.
"I bet it fell out of your pocket when you took off your jacket where I wiped out!"
This gave Stan a small bit of comfort in knowing it was close.
"What color is it?!" Kyle nearly screamed.
"Re…d…"
"I'm going to get it. You're going to be okay. I'll be right back. I promise."
Kyle hopped on his bike and pedaled faster than he ever had before back toward the scene of his crash. When he arrived, he ran over to the big rock and frantically searched for something red. After only a few seconds, a glint of red a few feet from the rock caught his eye.
That's it!
He stuffed it in his pocket and raced back toward Stan.
He raced up and down the hills and around the trail for the fourth time today. By the time he reached the final hill, his legs felt like they were going to give out.
Kyle jumped off his bike and was at Stan's side with the inhaler in no time.
Stan was barely breathing and barely conscious.
"I got it!"
Stan looked up at him with heavy eyes. He tried to reach for it, but he was too weak.
"I'll help you."
Kyle tilted his head up and gave him one dose and then another.
"Just breathe. Nice and easy."
Almost instantly his breathing began to steady.
"I told you that you would be okay," Kyle sighed, exhausted as Stan sat up.
Without saying a word Stan embraced Kyle tightly. He returned the embrace.
"You… saved my life!" He was bawling, clearly traumatized by his near-death experience.
"Don't mention it... That's what super best friends do, right?"
"Uh Hu."
"Just do me a favor and never make me worry like that about you again," Kyle pleaded.
"Alright," Stan responded instantly.
After sitting in silence for a few minutes reflecting on all that had just transpired, Stan had his own request.
"Kyle?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you do me a favor and never tell my mom this happened? If she finds out about this whole thing I'll probably be dubbed too careless to go anywhere alone again."
"Deal," Kyle agreed. "But only if you never tell my mom about that wipeout I had. I'll find some way to get these ripped up pants by her, but if she ever finds out I'll probably be forced to wear knee pads and elbow pads next time… If there ever is a next time."
They both laughed.
"Deal."