THE BICYCLIST

The Bicyclist

By Frederick J. Morales

Charlie was young then, when all that was wrong with the world

was being ignored by the prettiest girl he had ever seen. He could not explain

how his heart just went pitter-patter every time she said hello in the high

school lunchroom. How was he ever to get her off his mind to do his homework and

pay attention in class, pass the final exams and graduate in June with the rest

of the class of 1966? He was to turn seventeen in December and it was only the

last week in October, which presented another problem, Lorraine was only

interested in seventeen year-old high school seniors that could drive a car.

They had already passed drivers education and could keep her interested by

driving her home after school. That was exactly what was wrong with the world.

Charlie had no choice but to be sixteen and train for the New York State

Bicycling Championship, no choice at all! Charlie loved bicycling, that is

what he has always talked about since we were ten. One day shortly after his

sixteenth birthday he was in the garage cleaning his ten speed when all of the

sudden he dashed out of the garage and came over to my house. He said he could

not get Lori off his mind so he had come up with a master plan to get her to

ome to her window so he could apologize for wetting her with the hose as she

walked her dog when we were thirteen and tell her he has always been in love

with her and to please feel the same way about him. My girl friend Cathy and I

were watching TV when she heard the plan. She reached for the telephone and

called Lori and told her as Charlie and I got on our bikes and went to Lori's

house. It was about ten o'clock at night and Lori was waiting outside. Lori

told Charlie she loved living just a block away and that she could not stop

thinking of Charlie. Lori had finally faced it and was going over Charlie's

house. I fell off my bike standing still and laughing very hard. Lori and

Charlie hugged for the very first time as I just got on my bike and went home.

Those last few months of high school went by very slowly. Lori and Charlie and

Cathy and I just stayed home a lot and studied very hard to pass the final exams

and graduate from Douglaston High.
We had a lot of fun at the prom but Charlie was upset about something. We

had a little argument until he told me the reason he has to deliver the Long

Island Press is to save money on what he made on tips at Saturday collections

after throwing papers at doors from his bike, the same thing he has done since

he was fourteen. "I still have not made enough to beat my dad. He and I made a

bet, If I can save or win twenty-five thousand dollars he would let me go to

college and become a mechanical engineer and not a medical doctor like him." The

first prize from the annual 100 mile bicycle race from Central Park to Albany,

New York is fifty thousand dollars and I have been getting ready for it all my

life!" Charlie said. I had plans to study journalism and become a great writer

of books and short stories. I thought "what a story this would make." I told

Charlie since we were best friends I would do what ever I could to help him win

fifty thousand dollars, two months later we were ready.


Charlie had drawn a picture of a new kind of sprocket in drafting class

before we graduated and his dad sent it off and had it made. The back wheel of

his ten-speed now had six sprockets instead of five like normal bikes. Charlie

explained that the biggest problem he had was hill climbing and according to

mechanical engineering the number six sprocket, the largest one of all would

make pedaling up the hill easier. The day of the big race had finally come, at

two in the morning I drove Charlie, Lori and his customized bike to Central Park

in my van for the start of the race, then to Albany. Lori and I planned to help

Charlie on a few pit stops then drive to the New York State University parking

lot near the main gate to pick up Charlie. Lori and I were well on our way to

Albany at eight o'clock when the race started. Charlie qualified to start in the

tenth place. We had no idea what was going on in the race until we got to

Albany. We parked the spare parts van where all the others were and went to the

side-lines to get a good view of all the bicyclists to speed by sometime this

evening. At eight o'clock that night someone yelled, "Here they come!" It was

already dark and I could barely see the one rider ahead of everyone and he had

the number ten on his shirt, it was Charlie!


The End.