Carl had dared Jody to walk around the corral balancing himself on the round top rail. Jody said "That's too easy. I double dare you to run around it." Carl, not to be outdone raised the ante. "Oh yeah? Well I double-dog dare you to make it a race. We start at this corner, back-to-back, and the first one to get to the far corner wins." "You're on !" answered Jody. Cory piped up "I'll be the starter. I'll give you 'One! Two ! Three !' and then I'll shoot my cap pistol."

Most of the rails were pinned, but not all. The worst problem, though, was getting over the posts, especially when running. Carl was pretty sure he could jump over the posts instead of having to stop and step over each one. He doubted that Jody would dare to try that. The safest way to walk on a rail fence is to use a pigeon-toed gait, but it's impossible to run that way. The runner would have to run on the balls of his feet and that would be very tricky.

Each of the boys, of course, was very aware of the danger of falling astride the railing. It was most important to fall, if he must, to one side or the other of the fence, not onto it. The only time that that would be likely to happen would be if he tripped over a post.

Standing back to back with their heels against the post at the northwest corner of the corral, Carl and Cody waited impatiently for Cory to fire his damn' cap pistol before they fell off the fence before the race even got started. Cory was taking about 5 seconds between numbers: "One!..........Two !..........Three.........." BANG !

Carl took off like a rabbit. He had vowed not to look back to see what Jody was doing, no matter what happened. He leaped over the first of 20 posts and teetered perilously for a moment, losing precious time while he regained his balance. After the next post, the rail was unpinned and began to spin under his feet. It was like log-rolling. He was facing away from the corral and rolling the rail beneath his boots as he shuffled toward the next post which he'd have to be facing to jump over it.

Carl spun on his left foot and, at the same time pushed upward. He barely cleared the post and alighted on the ball of his right foot. Though he dared not look anywhere except at the rail, Carl suspected that Jody was lagging behind. He was right. Jody was shuffling as fast as he could and stepping over the posts. He wasn't sure that he dared to run on the rail as Carl did.

Having got the hang of what he was doing, Carl was making good time until he came to the 10th post, the southwest corner of the corral. Here he had to turn 90º to the left as he crossed the post. The only way Carl could see of doing this was to pirouette in the air over the post and try to come down on the rail with both feet, a difficult manoeuvre which almost didn't work. Again he teetered, and again caught himself just in time.

Jody wasn't anywhere near the half-way point at this time and realized that he'd have to run on the rails like Carl if he was ever to catch up. Carl was already 16 feet along the south side of the corral. Jody turned and began to run on the rail. It wasn't quite as hard as he had thought. Approaching the post too fast to step over it, he strode over it. If the next rail had been pinned, as it ought to have been, Jody would have had no trouble with it. However, when it began to spin under his feet, he panicked, lost his balance and fell astride the rail, ramming his groin and its contents against it.

Jody screeched as his testicles were smashed against the 4" pine rail. Nothing in his short life had ever hurt like that. Jody hadn't even imagined that pain like that existed. He fell off the rail into the corral, and curled up into a fetal posture, clutching at his ruined testicles, screaming, and vomiting.

This commotion broke Carl's concentration. He did the one thing he had promised himself NOT to do. He looked back, not at the rail beneath his feet and the post just ahead of it. Carl was horrified by what he saw. Then he tripped over the post and alighted astraddle the rail himself. Carl weighed more than Jody and his testicles were bigger. The impact was devastating. His sex glands bursted explosively sending to his nervous system a shock which momentarily stopped his heartbeat and breathing. It may have been the physical jolt to his chest as he fell onto the ground which re-started them.

Carl did not scream. He sank immediately into a coma. Cory ran up to the house to tell Carl's mother about what had happened. She called the Sheriff's office for help. By the time an ambulance finally arrived some 40 minutes later, both boys were comatose, their vital signs dangerously depressed. Oxygen and stimulants helped somewhat, but they were both admitted to the county hospital in critical condition.

Following surgery and a brief stay in Intensive Care, Carl and Jody regained consciousness, feeling extremely weak. They were not informed of their condition until the next day. The distressing news was that, though hormone replacement therapy could enable them to maintain a masculine appearence and muscular strength, they would both be permanently impotent. Carl's father, while exasperated, was not as distressed as Jody's. Carl had two brothers, but Jody had none.

Neither of the boys ever accepted a dare again, even a double-dog dare.