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A Picture is Worth Five Hundred Words

The Pause That Refreshes
– The Bike's Report

Y Lee Coyote

The picture shows a bicycle standing alone in the forest.  Why?  What has happened?  Did a fire-breathing dragon just have had dinner?  Is the cyclist all wrapped up in the python (s)he ran over?  Well, not in this case.  With a somewhat Rashomon-like approach, here is the third of three reports that explain things.

The following story is fiction about an judicial adult strapping.  If this subject is offensive, uninteresting or if you are a minor (i.e., child) please leave now.

This work is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission.  Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice.

The author would appreciate your comments – pro and con, including constructive criticism, and suggestions.  Please take a moment to e-mail.

We've been out all day going through the forest.  It was much nicer than being on the highway or the city streets where there are those big powerful bullies which can wreak both of us even when my powerpack is very careful.  The forest floor is also much cooler and softer than the asphalt or cement pavement of roads and my tires don't get as hot. My powerpack has this strange habit for it constantly sucks water from a container we carry.  It's a dangerous habit especially when the bullies are about zipping about.  It also needs to drain the water it ingests several times a day.  Generally, it goes into a special service facility so that the discharged waste fluid can be disposed of properly, rather than polluting the environment, but not always.

We were riding peacefully when my powerpack suddenly stopped and ran into the forest.  I immediately had a bad feeling since it hadn't indicated that it had observed a forest critter to observe more closely.  «It's going to foul the forest.» I thought.  Then another powerpack ran up from the main path and followed my powerpack into the forest.  This one yelled at mine who turned very deferential.  Apparently, he was higher ranking and thus commanded respect and obedience.  After a few exchanges, I heard the snap of the spandex faux-skin being removed.  Then the sound of a belt striking real skin and my powerpack made lots of strange noises.  Just about then another powerpack came running from deeper into woods and entered the woods to get closer.  The strap was still being used on my powerpack.  When that stopped, more words were exchanged.

My powerpack came out of the woods in obvious discomfort.  The high ranking powerpack was immediately behind.  It was threading that heavy wide belt back into its faux-skin.  This confirmed that the higher ranking powrpack must have been striking mine with that belt.  My powerpack grabbed me in haste and started to run.  Fortunately, the ground was rough enough that my kick stand snapped back and I was not injured.  In a few minutes we were at the service facility and my powerpack ran in.

When my powerpack came out, it walked us down the highway to the train station to return to our den.  It was in great discomfort from what had happened in the forest and stood with me at the end of the car rather than sitting as usual.  My powerpack was very down and kept rubbing its bottom on the ride.  It was necessary to tell my fellow bikes what had happed so I would not be even more embarrassed should they think it was my fault that my powerpack was in pain.

The End

© Copyright A.I.L.  July 12, 2010

Mija

I love reading stories told from the point of view of objects and pets.

The images of the bike trying to make sense of what was happening to its human were quite effective. My favorite bit was the detail of it having to tell the other bikes what had happened. I wasn't quite sure the title worked with the story's tale, but the bike as character was quite effective.

TechTiger

The first time I read this, I must have been extremely tired, it took me a minute to realize what the "power pack" was. Cute piece. Coming from the perspective of the bicycle,it gave a different take on the observation of a spanking.

Haron

This story awoke in me a great feeling of sympathy with the narrator. It can't be easy to be a confused bicycle in the modern world. I enjoyed the character's voice. The detail of it being concerned about the good opinion of the other bikes was particularly touching.

Pablo

Trying to assess this story independently of the other two in the series, this one comes off best of the three, mainly because - fun as the different viewpoints are - it stands out as the most unusual and creative, and also the most ambitious. There are consequently some very nice, almost science-fictiony touches, such as the bike referring to its rider as a "powerpack". This is done a little patchily; other than an occasional word-change, the bike's voice, its world knowledge and language skills, are perhaps too much like a human's - references to "spandex", for example. One might expect that a bike's language would be far more different from human language than it turns out to be. But lots of marks for the overall concept, and for the originality and quirkiness here.