Mr. Clutch by Timothy Keohane

“Lets go Pa!” my little cousin yells from the back of the 12-person bike we rented. We were spending the night at the boardwalk in Disney World. The plan was and what the Disney employees told us was to go to the end of the boardwalk and turn around and come back. My 7 other cousins ranging from 8-15 in age were sitting in the back. The oldest ones Patrick, Hannah, myself, Declan and my crazy Uncle Don all had pedals at our feet and controlled the speed of the bike. My grandfather who was 67 at the time was in the drivers seat and our fate was determined by his driving skills. From experience there have been some close calls while driving with my grandfather. For example, the time that we went swerving in and out of the parked cars at the Quirk Ford driving dealership. The last words we heard from our screaming mothers and the overprotective Disney employees was “Be Safe!” and we were off. We start pedaling immediately as fast as would could. After at least 5 minutes of us cruising down the boardwalk on a flat surface going the same direction my grandfather decides that we would take a little detour. My little brother Matty at the age of 6 asks not very politely, "Pa, what are you doing!" This does not surprise his son-in-law or any of his grandchildren. With our luck it just so happened that there was wedding in full swing going on down at the bottom of the hill. The strobe lights of the Disc-Jockey and the large white cake sitting just behind the see through tent really gave off the wedding vibe. As we start ripping up mounds of dirt trying to brake with our legs by reversing the way we were pedaling. It wasn’t enough so we decided to use our voices, which the Keohane family is very good at doing. We all were screaming, "watch out, lookout" occasionally a few words came out that I had no idea of what they meant at the time. This technique failed us due to the very loud music coming from beneath the large white tent. It was up to Pa our grandfather who for that night we called Mr. Clutch because his driving skills paid off right when we needed them too. At this point we are flying down this hill and nothing is working to stop us and we can barely make out Pa screaming, “Hold on kids!” Uncle Don reaches back and pushed us back into our seats to keep us safe. My oldest cousin was screaming like a new born as most if us start panicking. We do a complete fishtail and in the matter of seconds we are fully stopped and facing upward looking up at the hill that almost killed us. Nobody said a word for a few seconds then Pa turns slowly to face all of his grandchildren and says with a smile on his face “Anybody want to go round 2?” We all looked at him like he was an alien from a different planet and had to heads. We then got out and pushed the bike up to the top of the hill and popped it back on the trail like nothing happened. We arrived at the rental shop 30 minutes late with shock in our eyes and were fined a small fee. My grandfather gladly handed the lady extra money and told her again with an even bigger smile on her face “It is well worth it, thank you!”