Dexter (Column 2)

My brother has danced on that line of death all his life. It can be said that our whole family has bad luck, as the flight for life has been to our house twice, but none of us suffered the extremities of this unluckiness at such a young age. It seemed throughout all his childhood, my brother Dexter could have easily earned himself the nickname Stitch, for all the hospital runs that boy went on.
I guess we should have known when the kid was born through emergency C-section, that maybe his life was going to have everyone else sweating bullets. After barely surviving that, he has managed to have stitches in his lip, not once but twice. Both times were when his lip met the end of a metal bar. He has split open his forehead running into the corner of a shelf, been kicked in the stomach and the head by a horse. The second time however the horse managed to split his ear in half with its powerful hoof. Thirteen stitches later my brother still had an ear on his head, thank goodness.
Dexter, now sixteen, is a guy who could be described best as fearless. At times dad may exchange the word fearless for stupid, as we watch holding our breath, while my brother hot rods around the farm on his dirt bike. You would think after suffering the worst of a scull fracture the boy would settle down a bit, but with Dex it’s go fast or don’t go at all.
He was eight years old when the scariest of all the scares happened. Our family was having our yearly branding. This is an exciting time for everyone, as everyone invites friends out to ride horses and brand about 300 calves all afternoon, to then feast like kings afterward. My brother and his friend slipped away from the excitement however and jumped on the four-wheeler to go for a spin. My brother made the mistake of letting his friend drive which was probably not a good idea for someone who has no experience with a four-wheeler. I need not mention it is probably not a good idea for an eight year old to drive period. But farm kids are thrown on moving objects at a very young age regardless.
Then it happened. Somehow the four-wheeler had managed to flip and my brother was trapped under the heavy machine while his friend stood helplessly in horror. Lucky for Dexter a couple of high school boys were driving by and were able to lift the now upside down four-wheeler off of him. What they found though was a young boy covered in blood and unconscious. He had cracked his skull completely around the top of his head.
No parent or sibling for that matter wants to hear news like that. After a couple weeks in the hospital he was finally released to go home but was to be under watch at all times. The right side of his face didn’t work properly. That cute little smile was now crooked as the nerves were damaged during the accident. His eyes couldn’t focus either, as one eye would look at you while the other was looking off to the side. We were told he could never play sports and would have to wear a helmet at all times if he were to ride a bike.
Well the kid has taken tremendous leaps since then. Eight years later he is now leading tackler on his football team and just recently made it to state in wrestling. You would look at him today and not be able to tell at all that the nerves in his face were once damaged. He’s no quitter. Even though he has us all holding our breaths and dropping our jaws at times, he keeps things exciting to say the least.