Hello, everyone!
Welcome to Monday. Whether you are headed to school, drawing pictures at your dining room table, or rounding up sheep on the high hills, I am glad to spend a few minutes with you at the start of this brand new week. Let’s hope that it’s a good one.
Here’s a story I just wrote. I think you’ll notice that it doesn’t have a plot, which means it that not much really happens. So maybe you won’t like it. But maybe you will. This story is not about things happening as much as it’s about describing what it feels like to be a certain kind of person at a certain time in life. And that type of person is a kid who rides a bicycle.
Adam’s Bike
Adam had eyes he used to see kites in the sky and a nose he used to smell popcorn popping. He had ears to hear the sound of fireworks and fingers he used to notice the rough sides of barnacles when he stuck his hands in tidepools. He had a tongue he used to taste lemon candy.
Adam’s world was very large and very, very interesting.
He loved his ears and nose, his eyes and tongue and fingers, but he loved his arms and his legs even more. Because he used them to ride his bicycle.
Adam’s bike was red with a bright white stripe that he liked to see with his eyes and a soft black seat he liked to feel with his rump and a bright silver bell that he liked to squeeze with his fingers and hear with his ears.
He’d never thought to taste the bike, but he tasted the sweat that rolled down his lip and into his mouth when he rode very fast, which he always did, because when he rode very fast, and especially down a hill, he saw, smelled, heard, felt, and, yes, even tasted the best of the world in one great rush of good feeling.
It was good to have a bike with a bright white stripe. It was good to be a kid with eyes and ears and fingers and a tongue. It was good to have a great big world full of roads and hills and secret places to explore on a sunny afternoon with just a few clouds and still several hours until supper.
For the record, I like your story very much.
THE NEOVENATOR’S BICYCLE
by Simon, as dictated to Brad
[editor’s note: A neovenator is a kind of dinosaur similar to an allosaurus or tyrannosaurus.]
The setting is in the country Brazil and the NEOVENATOR’S BICYCLE takes place 125 million years ago. Now this is how the story goes. One day, a neovenator was walking along a riverbank when he spotted a bicycle. Next, he said “I think that bicycle would be just the right size for me.” So he walked toward the bicycle and he sat down on it. It was the right size for him, but there was only one problem. He couldn’t ride it because he didn’t know how to ride a bicycle. He did like the color, which was blue with purple polka-dots. And so, the next day he went to school to learn how to ride a bicycle. The teacher dinosaur was a triceratops. The other kids in his classroom were a polacanthus, an iguanodon, a centrosaurus, and a brachiosaurus. Next, he learned how to ride a bicycle. First you put your feet on the pedals and then you turn the pedals around and around and around by using your feet and making your feet go round and round and round. And that is how you make the bicycle go all around. But there is one more rule for riding a bike, and that rule is when you are about to crash into something, you turn the handles and that makes the bike turn. So the next day, the neovenator went back to the bike and sat down on it again and he put his feet on the pedals and turned his feet round and round and round and that bike moved! But he forgot to put his hands on the handles and when it looked like he was about to crash into another dinosaur he did! The other dinosaur, which was a chasmosaurus, said “Watch out!” and the neovenator said, “Oh, I’m sorry.” And that time he remembered to put his hands on the bike’s handles. Then he was really riding a bike! And then the neovenator could ride a bike. He couldn’t just ride one bike at a time, but he could also ride two bikes at a time. THE END.
Simon: As a writer, I feel compelled to tell you that this is an excellent story. First of all, it takes place in Brazil, which is an excellent setting for a story. Second, the main character is a dinosaur, and dinosaurs are awesome. Third, I’ve never heard of a neovenator before, but now, thanks to your story, I know what a neovenator is, and I love to learn new things. In fact, you mentioned several dinosaurs I had never heard of, and so I learned several new things. Fourth, you do a great job of covering the basics of bicycle operation, which would make this a great story for people who don’t yet know how to ride a bicycle. And lastly, you left us with a surprise twist. Although we had been very much hoping that the neovenator would learn how to ride his bicycle, you upped the stakes my having him learn how to ride two at once! The only thing more amazing than a dinosaur on a bicycle is a dinosaur on TWO bicycles. Well done, sir. Well done.