The Bike Path

Today I took a personal day to catch up with a life that feels sometimes out of control. I rested my sore throat and rested my busy mind , An abundance of memories flooded me as I wandered through today; mostly of my Pop Johnny. He lived with me in the last 6 months of his life and he knew had to tell a story like nobody else. What was even better was he knew had to finish one. We, he and I, had a thing about the first two wheeler he bought me. I asked for red, he bought me blue. When I questioned how Santa could make such a gross error, he plainly answered, Blue is better.

So the battle began. All my life I tried to get him to stop telling me what I wanted. He intern told me what I thought and how to feel. Therapy, religion, holistic self searching...nothing changed. I married a man like my father the very first time, and it only got worse from there.

When I was strong enough to leave him and my troubled sence of self, the first thing I did was buy my own red bicycle. My x applauded me when he saw me ride it home, and I was on my way to healing a womb that was very long overdue.

Periodoiclly I would tell the story only to hear my dad grown in the background."Not that gosh-damm-story about the bicycle...can we please let that go?"

And when I built my present home I built a path now made of 176 bicycles re-claimed from the dump, woven as the armature for a fence that encircles my property and keeps preditors like deer at bay.

There are sections of tricycles and sections of Blue bikes,broken ones and ones that you could fix and ride. I even have two tandoms that I use as guideposts for entering the path. My "bike path" is a work of art and the springboard for many a long summer nights tale.

The best part of the story was the night before my father had his fatal stoke we sat by the fire, my present husband Dexter,my dad, and I. Johnny began..."Did I ever tell you about Steffi's first bicycle" he turned and asked my husband? I almost fell off the chair. "No, answered Dex gingerly. "Well she asked ....and he told the story true down to the last detail. EXCEPT one thing. When he got near the end he said. "and well you know it was a good thing that I knew the man at the store, because we took that blue bicycle right back and got her the one she really wanted."

My mouth dropped open and Dexter looked pale. The circle had come around and here he was needing to make it all right.

"Yup I said it was a great red bike POP". Go figure.

I look at the bikes now and realize it bothered him more than it ever bothered me. He never spoke of it, but he carried it around.
I collected 176 bicycles that make a path in a circle, just like we did. He brought us back to the begininng with the truth as he knew it. Life seems to be a combination of both. I'm not sure I'm any more together than I was yesterday
but it was nice to take a day and remember the abundance of love we each had.