The Story of Joshua~Chapter 2

       At the age of 12, the neighbors took Joshua out tubing with them.  When it was his turn, the father took off going 60mph in their speed boat and proceeded to whip from side to side trying to dislodge Joshua from the tube.  He finally could hold on no longer.  The speed and force  of over 90mph was so great that Joshua bounced off the surface of the water three times before it finally broke and allowed his broken body to sink through.  There wasn't a place on his body that wasn't black and bruised from this event.  He received no medical help, and not even an offer to take him to the doctor from his family, but spent the rest of that summer trying to recover as well.


        Later that fall, he was riding his motorbike through the woods.  The same bully came out of nowhere and to avoid hitting the boy, Joshua swerved, hit a stone and went flying through the air to land on a boulder on his knees.  Cut open and in a great deal of pain, he gathered his bike and forced himself to walk home.  When he got there and he told his parents what had happened, his father told him to go walk it off.  So, trusting in them, he did.  He began walking up and down the street.  Limping at first, but then a warm euphoria came over his body.  By the time he was finished walking, thou still bleeding and bruised, the pain in his leg was completely gone.

Joshua and his cousin Jaren

       One night in the spring of '87 when Joshua was 13 years old, he came home from basketball practice.  The school was only a mile away, and having not been able to get a hold of his family, he walked home.  It was about 10 o'clock at night by the time he got back and completely dark.  There were no lights on at his home, and the doors were locked.  He tried to open all of the windows and was unable to.  It was still early spring, and so the night was very cold.  He sat outside shivering in his basketball shorts and t-shirt.  Remember that this was before the time of cell phones, he had no one to contact and no where to go.  So there he sat for five hours.  His parents drove up with his sister around 3:00 am to a shivering blue faced Joshua.  Nothing was said to him, no apology or explanation, they simply went inside the house and went to bed, leaving Joshua to find something to eat, because he hadn't eaten such lunch at school the day before, and go to bed cold and alone.