The instructor called to Tricia and told her to take him to the nurse. Tricia came over to Matthew and helped him stand up. His head rested on his shoulder and he whimpered as they walked to the nurse's office.

The nurse tried to look at Matthew's neck. But he wouldn't let her. He screamed and shouted that his neck was broken. The nurse called my mother and told her to come take Matthew to the emergency room. All she would tell my mother is that he kept shouting that his neck was broken.

Mom came to school. She had to take all of us, because by the time she returned school would be over. So we piled into the car.

Tricia was watching over Matthew. Michael was pinching Matthew to make him cry. My mom says I was singing. She drove us to the Navy Yard Clinic in downtown D.C. I'm sure she felt like she was going crazy.

She tried to convince Matthew to tell her what the matter was. He talked and about the backwards roll and his broken neck. He became upset and continued crying and saying his neck was broken.

We finally arrived at the clinic. Mom took us inside. She told me to be in charge while she took Matthew inside to see the doctor, I think she carried Andrew in with her.

Of course, Michael wouldn't do anything I said. He was running around and almost knocking things over, so I had to chase him. Mom yelled at us and gave me Andrew to hold. Michael just teased us then.

The doctor wasn't in the office. The corpsmen couldn't handle Matthew, so they told my mother she would have to take him to Bethesda. It was getting late, around rush hour. We would have to get on the Beltway. I don't think Mom was looking forward to the trip.

The trip was not any more eventful than usual, but it was not a quiet trip. There was a lot of traffic on the beltway.

Mom told Matthew, "Your neck had better be broken."

We arrived after about an hour at Bethesda. We all trooped in and sat in the waiting room.

Mom and Matthew were called in to see the doctor. The doctor approached Matthew. Matthew yelled, "My neck is broken."

The doctor stepped back and asked, "How do you know your neck is broken?"

Matthew replied, "Well it used to be like this." He raised his head up straight. "And now it's stuck like this." He rested his head back on his shoulder.

Mom said, "Oh, Matthew."