Michael Castro
Chapter#9
NINE
THREE SPEEDS
June 30, 2008
Do you still remember when you were eight and I was seven, and we got those two new bikes for Christmas? They were the last presents we received after being told by our parents, “That’s all the presents. Oh, we forgot. There’s one more inside the garage, so you better go check it.” After hearing this we both started running to our garage door in this Supersonic Speed any Super Hero would be proud of. Again, it was you who got to the door before I could, just like when you grabbed that last cookie from Aunt Merci’s Platter. Then blamed it on me. Guess the “Super Sonic Frequency” in your legs and hands back then was set on a higher level than mine, but it was about this time in our lives when I’d begun gaining ground on you.
It took you about “Two or Three Supersonic Seconds” before you could open our garage door because your palms had suddenly gotten sweaty from nervous, just like mine had. After we managed to open the door and quickly enter to look on the inside, there, in the middle of our garage stood these two tall mounds covered in bed blankets. They were standing side by side just waiting to be discovered. After pulling blankets off to see what was underneath, we found these two shiny new bikes decorated with big Christmas bows on the handlebars.
I still remember how your bike had these long chrome handle bars with plastic hand grips and the ends. The shiny chrome handle bars and chrome rims perfectly accented the medium gold color of your bike that was blinding in the reflection of sunlight. When you first sat on your long, diamond-tucked gold bike seat you had to stand on your tip-toes in order to reach the ground and not fall-over. Our father quickly got tools from his toolbox and adjusted your seat as I tried waiting patiently for him to help me with mine. Because you were one year older your bike was little taller many because the wheel size was a little bigger than my charcoal grey bike. But other than that, all of the other accessories on our bikes were pretty much the same.
After my seat was adjusted we quickly jumped on our bikes to take them out for a test drive[a], but before we could exit out of the garage we were quickly halted by our father. He yelled, “Wait a minute wait a minute! You need to put these on for safety!” He then handed us those two large bicycle helmets that weren’t “cool looking at all.” They were big and very uncomfortable…and we weren’t happy with this last surprise. In my mind I silently thought, “Helmets?! Helmets?! We don’t need no stinking Helmets! I’m six years old and my Big Brother is already seven!” Does this bring back any memories? Of course we both wined for a few minutes, still reluctant to wear those helmets in public for everyone to see. But our father wouldn’t open the garage door until we promised to leave them on at all times while riding our bikes. We then looked at each other in this “weird, cross-eyed way” because after we agreed, it was only then we realized that our helmets actually matched the same color of our bikes! Yours was a glittery gold, and mine was glittery grey. (How embarrassing.) Of course, once we left the garage you got the jump on me again, Big Brother. You had strapped-on your helmet before I could, then quickly took-off about 20 yards in front of me. Since my bike was a little smaller than yours that meant it took me “twice the leg power” to catch-up you. I quickly found this sort of endurance exercise wasn’t going to be easy since the only thing we’d owned with speed where our Big Wheels we’d gotten a couple years back. When I first tried gaining ground on you my feet kept slipped off my petals, and I almost fell-over as you rode further and further away.
I finally managed to catch-up to you after my legs had been pumping like “The Little Train That Could,” but when you saw how I’d gotten within “one bike length,” you suddenly stood-up on your bike and started pedaling in this “strange manner” I’d never seen before. It instantly made you go faster, a lot faster than I was going. And when I tried using this same technique I quickly sat back down on my own bike because it felt “unnatural” because I just didn’t have “your confidence.”
You saw how hesitant I was and found it very amusing. You gave me this “Big Brother Look” that suddenly made me feel as if I was shrinking on my bike seat. With “sheer determination” I started pedaling my bike even faster than before, but when I tried standing-up I almost crashed into some neatly trimmed bushes along the right side of the gutter, and ended up in the middle of the street. You started circling me on your bike while I was trying to regain my composure. I felt like a Vulture’s Prey. Then you squawked me “Come on slowpoke! Can’t you ride that ‘little’ bike?! Can’t you go any faster than that?”
Hearing this really got under my young skin! So I began looking at your bicycle tires, trying to melt them with my “Pulsating Super Power Heat Vision!” It’s a good thing you were pedaling around me really fast, otherwise I probably could have locked on my target, then laughed when leaving you stranded curbside. And you didn’t even have Triple A Insurance?!
Over the next few days I did gain more confidence riding my bike, and with our parent’s permission we started riding down the end of the block, then around without our parents first knowing. By the end of our Christmas Vacation I was able to keep-up with you pretty good, and do most of the same tricks and small ramp jumps you were doing. While riding around our block we saw a couple of your friends in your grade. They’d also received bikes for Christmas. It was fun how we all started riding our bikes together, then someone came-up with the idea of riding the next day to school. Why not? A lot of other kids in our neighborhood were already doing it? But we were still young and the chances of getting permission very slim.
After talking with our parents, I couldn’t believe “your idea” had actually been approved! But there was just one “small” problem before it could be finalized. They were worried, and thought I was too young to ride my bike to school with you and your friends. So I did what any other self-respecting kid my age would do. I started pleading and begging out loud! Promising to do all of my chores, work harder in school, and get better grades! I don’t remember, but if someone would’ve said I’d actually offered to rebuild the motor of our father’s “Ford Pickup Truck,” I wouldn’t have disagreed. In the end it felt really good to also ride along with you and the fellas.
Mayfair Elementary was about seven or eight blocks away from our house, so we made sure to leave at “7:30am sharp” in order to get to school on time. On the way, we met-up with your close friend who lived at the end of our block before meeting-up with a few more blocks away. By the time we were about half way to school, we had amassed this “Little Biker Gang” made up of about 8-10 of your older friends. Back then no matter what it seemed as if I was always the last one in our group. I tried keeping-up on my “Fat Boy Bike,” but it was just smaller than everyone else’s. Besides, everyone else could ride their bike standing-up whenever they wanted a little more speed.
Our “Biker Gang” was always courteous, and never had any problems sharing the road with automobiles. We were always safety conscience. The only problem we ever encountered was being chased by that pack of wild dogs that seemed to come out of nowhere just a couple of blocks before school. It could be quiet as can be as we rode up to these same houses, then we’d suddenly hearing all this “mad barking” all around us! We’d instantly start pedaling our bikes as fast as we possibly could in order not to end-up like Alpo. And I was always the last, so I got the closest look at these dogs.
The two lead dogs looked like “Tibetan Spaniels,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d informed their pack our bikes were soon approaching with their keen sense of hearing. Why, it wouldn’t be a big surprise if we’d been heard right after leaving our house because of that great invention “someone came-up with?” Attaching our father’s “Playing Cards with Wooden Clothes Pins to our Rims” because they made those “cool clicking noises” never occurred it one day become very detrimental to our health. So when those dogs would start chasing us and I was the last one in the back of our group, I didn’t think “your idea was cool at all!”
I remember seeing an “American Cocker Spaniel, Jack Russell Terrier, and one of those Hairless Chihuahuas” I think was the Ring Leader now running right behind two lead “Tibetan Spaniels.” Of course, once again, everyone had “gotten the jump on me” while my feet kept slipping-off the petals because I was so scare. At that point it didn’t matter “I pedaling like crazy” but all of those dogs were now making ground on me. I felt as if those two Tibetan Spaniels and American Cocker Spaniels had reached some sort of agreement because they suddenly tried racing to cut me off, while the Jack Russell Terrier suddenly moved-in from the rear and started jumping-up at me about waist-high.
That Terrier probably would pierced my left ear if he’d only gotten within a couple more inches. But that “Ring Leader Chihuahua” had now caught-up to me, and was trying crawl-up my Bell Bottom Jeans to have himself a “Meat Balls Sandwich!” But then I heard our mother’s voice telling once again, “God spared your life for a special reason.” And I knew this reason wasn’t for me to end-up like some “Kibbles ‘N’ Bits! I prayed “Please God, give me the strength to get myself out of this scary situation. Don’t let these dogs eat me!”
Right after praying the thought of us riding our “Big Wheel Cars” when we were younger, quickly came to mind. I remembered those “humming noises” we’d make, pretending we had three gears to make us go faster. I quickly shifted into second, then in third gear at the top of my lungs! And when I suddenly incorporated your standing-up pedaling technique I not only left those “Angry Dogs” far behind, but also drove around our Biker Gang and took the lead! I believed it was God who reminded me of those “Three Speeds Humming Noises” and it was He who provided me with the strength to go faster than I’d ever gone before. Glory be to God!
Yes, I had won a “Great Victory” that morning, but we still had to ride our bikes the same way coming home after school. This was the only route we had. By the end of that first week, before our “Biker Gang” arrived at that same “Dog Gone Area,” everyone was standing-up riding their bike, making the same humming noises. The beginning of the second week we got wise, and would start going faster just after turning onto the corner where all those dogs were hiding and waiting for us. When we did this we “got the jump on those doges” who didn’t have a chance at getting close. Thanks be to God! Made me want to kiss the ground!
On the weekends we’d sometimes ride our bikes to school and onto school grounds, which was not permitted on school days. Do your still remember how the back perimeter of Mayfair was boarded by that cold, quick running canal water everyone was so afraid of? That fast running current ran east down McKinley Avenue towards Clovis. In our first years at Mayfair I still remember children actually exiting out of the back of our school, having to cross that old wooden bridge across the canal, and this was where wasn’t any protective metal fencing around it that was install until years later. Then, it was a good idea to finally blocked-off from all usage.
But on this one particular day after we’d ridden our bikes onto school grounds, you and a couple of your friends suddenly decided it’d be cool to exit out the back-way of our school, and ride our bikes over that open bridge. This all started when someone “dared” someone else to ride across that old bridge. Then suddenly everyone was involved. You and I were the last ones to cross only because you knew how scared I was over all bodies of water ever since my accident at Avocado Lake. Seeing how I was hesitate, you told me “Don’t be afraid. Just follow me across. Don’t look down. Everything’s going to be alright.”
In the beginning we started-out across with me following close behind like your shadow, but about half way across I suddenly froze on that bridge without you even knowing. You looked back, and told me to continue riding and not look down, but when my foot slipped off my petal I couldn’t help but suddenly look down and clearly see all of that “Swiftly Moving Canal Water” through the wide gaps of the bridge slats underneath my feet. It looked “So Alive,” and with its roaring sound it made me feel as if it was talking to me.
After you made it across your friends quickly informed you that I’d froze on that same spot of the bridge. You all started yelling to me “Don’t look down! Look in front of you and keep-on going! Come on, you can do it! So I listened, then proceeded “very cautiously” across the rest of that bridge. And when I finally crossed to where everyone was waiting, it was time to go back cross because this was the only way we could return home without using the busy streets our parents forbid us to ride on. I only bring-up this memory, Big Brother, so you could finally realize just how much I really loved you back then. That’s the reason why I always wanted to be with you. Why, I would have “crossed the ends of the world for you” if you would have asked me to. If you think about it, that’s exactly what I did when you asked me to cross that old wooden bridge behind. I put my life on the lie just to be with you and your friends. And I probably would have done it again.
Even after everything I’d been through at Avocado Lake, I faced my fears when crossing that bridge behind you. I did it because I loved you’d just as much as God loves all of us, His Children. I just hope by using some of our “childhood experiences,” I can explain to you just how much I feel God still loves me while I’m trying to change my life for the better. He knows how I’ve been searching for answers, and in this search I am developing a closer relationship with Him. At some point you just have to ask yourself, Big Brother, just what kind of relationship do “you” personally want with God? Whenever you pray you are growing closer to God and showing just how much you really love for Him. In doing this good things are going to happen in both our lives.
“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.”
Romans 8:28