Moving Bicycle Shadow, Photo Credit: John Alphonse, Dreamstime.com
Photo Credit: John Alphonse, Dreamstime.com
Gasp. Puff. Need more air. Huff. Blow. Nose open. Mouth open. Still…need…more. Keep going. Got to go forward. Always forward.
Looked up at the sun. Stupid thing to do. Too hot. My neck… my back… Burning through my shirt. My legs. Exhausted. No water – except the salt water pouring down my face. Ow – burning the corner of my eye.
Keep going. Got to make it. Gasp. Blow. Sucking in hot air. Parched from the dry heat. How much further? Still… Not close. Keep going. I. Am. An Idiot.
Why the hell did I think I could do this? Gasp. Puff. Didn’t bring water. Sucking in hot air. Gasp. Pause. Pause? I have lost my mind. Sucking air. Need more.
Wait – I see the end. So close. Looks like I’m going to make it. Almost there. Just need more air. Gasp. Huff. Gasp. Blow. Yay! Finally… Made it… Relief…
Think this is a #fridayflash? No – just my bike ride home last weekend after riding with L to her friend’s birthday party. On a whim, I had said , “Let’s ride over.”Me.Said that. Who hasn’t been on a bicycle since before L was born – and she is now in middle school.
We got there; me wearing my dancer’s smile. You’ve seen the one – dancers smiling widely as though leaping and spinning around the stage is effortless; when they’re really sucking in amounts of air that rival the intake of a jet engine. That smile fools everyone.
I waved cheerily to L and her friends, and set off on the 2.2 mile ride home. Well, at least I could be happy that L would never know; that I barely made it home would remain my secret. Happy to have retained my SuperMom big, red ‘S’, I stood at the sink; throwing down one sixteen ounce sports bottle of water after another.
My cell phone buzzed. L’s TM asks, “r u k?”
Sigh… Shouldn’t have told her about the dancer’s smile.
#fridayflash or not, it’s cute.
Thanks, John!