A Gift to Serve You: Brown came today (story)

[OMR]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The door bell rang while I was on the phone talking business. After hanging up, I walked to the door and caught a glimpse of a brown UPS truck pulling away. “What the hell had my wife ordered now?” I wondered as I opened the door. But instead of a small package, I was greeted with a large cardboard carton. “Looks big enough to hold a bike!” I thought, as I wrestled the large box inside the door. Yeah, that’ll be the day. I was seriously short of cash these days and all the wishing and wanting in the world would not deliver me a shiny new mountain bike… especially one of those 29 inch big wheel beauties I had lusted over in my local bike shop.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Instead of my wife’s name, my address stood out in large bold, black letters. “What the hell” I wasn’t expecting anything… that I knew of. No other markings or return address on the outside… just my address.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman] I walked back into the kitchen and retrieved a table knife and slowly cut down one side and then the other… opening the box, I caught the flash of black metal. Ripping the packing material away, I stood back in wonder as the box revealed a black shiny bicycle frame with large 29” wheels complete with knobby tires. Wow! Lifting the light fame out of the box revealed even further things underneath. Handlebars, brake cables, cranks, gears… everything was here for a complete bike.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I stood there dumbfounded, thinking that perhaps my wife has squirreled away some money and had bought this for me as a present… but it wasn’t my birthday and it sure in hell wasn’t Christmas… where had this come from. I searched the box and found only a small card with the words “To Serve You” printed on it…. no other papers… no invoice … no nothing! Was this some sort of religious thing? [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Well, I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Trying to keep the mounting excitement from taking control, my hands shook as I gathered the tools from the garage work bench and started assembling the bike. I could hardly wait until my wife came home to ask her how and where had this bike come from.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]2 hours later, the black bike stood complete leaning against the worn couch. It had gone together like a well oiled machine. Every part seemed to fit perfectly. Odd, that never happened before. Usually when I assembled a bike, something didn’t fit or the proper tool was always missing… lost somewhere in the kid’s room… not to be found until mom cleaned the room up.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The front door opened and my wife walked in, hands full of grocery shopping bags, purse and keys. After depositing all in the kitchen and returned with a hurt look on her face. “I thought we had agreed that you were not to get a new bike until after you had a job!” she said. “You know we can’t afford this right now”[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]“But I didn’t honey. I thought you had bought this for me. I didn’t buy this. It just came today from UPS. I couldn’t find any return address or paperwork… no nothing.”[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]My first thought was to say, Can I keep it? But that quickly changed that to, “I’ll call UPS tomorrow and find out where it came from.”[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]“Hey, it won’t hurt to go for a ride on this… I’ll probably have to send it back tomorrow to wherever it came from”, I said as I wheeled the bike towards the door. Gosh, it seemed so light and easy to move in my hands… as thought it was built just for me.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]“Be back before dinner”, my wife called after me. “No worries, my mate” I called back. My wife loved that little touch of Aussie speak as she was from Down Under.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Carrying it down the steps, I caught sight of a UPS truck rounding the corner. I wonder if that is the same truck. I could perhaps ask the driver to check his automated shipping device and see where the package had originated from. But the truck sped past the house and was 2 blocks away by the time I reached the street. Funny, the windows on the truck seemed particularly dark for a delivery truck…. Oh well…[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Although it wasn’t quite completely dark yet, the moon was beginning to rise, as I slid onto the seat. “That’s strange” I thought. I’d never had a new seat that felt so right… right out of the box! It fits like a glove… no, something better than a glove. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Pushing away from the curb, I slowly turned the pedals over and although I wasn’t wearing cleats, my shoes felt like they were attached to the pedals like glue. What an incredible bike I thought as I picked up speed and turned the corner. I was heading to my favorite piece of neighborhood single track. A small short trail that was perhaps only 4 blocks long but complete with a small rock garden, roots and several man-made obstacles. Our local mountain biking group had worked and honed it to death until it was truly a work of art.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Tonight, on this bike, it took on new characteristics. I seemed to float over logs and rocks. The only thing I could hear was my slow and steady breathing. The bike had simply disappeared under me. Time almost stood still and I was enjoying the moment so much I missed the flicker of movement in the darkening shadows. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Suddenly, a blindly bright light that seemed to come from above illuminated the landscape. My first thought was that it was the moon… but it was way too bright. The light was followed by a low frequency sound that I could feel in my bones. It continued to build in volume until I could hear nothing else. It was then that I noticed that I was no longer on the ground but suspended in air and slowly rising.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]“What the hell!” But then I had no time to think as the blackness quickly closed around me and I could not see, feel or hear anything. I slowly dropped into that big black hole and lost all thought.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I came back to consciousness in bit and pieces. I found I was suspended in the air by some sort of field that would not allow me to move. All I could do is breath and move my eyes. There was movement below me as I noticed two creatures in the shadows packing the black bike I had just been riding into another box and applying a label marked for some address in California. That was all I could read from my vantage point. It was then that I noticed that there were other people suspended in air around me. They all had biking apparel on: helmets, gloves, racing jerseys, bike shorts, pads. We were a community of bikers. “What the hell?” I kept thinking that I’ve got to wake up… wake up![/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]A soft gong sounded and one of the bikers slowly descended to the floor only to be met by the two creatures. Still immobile, they stripped him and shoved him into a small long round chamber, closed the door and pushed several buttons. A slight humming came from the chamber and another after a minute or so another gong went off. Opening the door, they pulled out the still smoking body of the biker and proceeded to carve him up with a pencil thin device. The scent of human flesh burning surrounded me. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]A chill came over me as it suddenly became clear what all this was about. The beautiful black bike in the box had simply been a lure… an unmistakable, irresistible human lure to get me out and alone where I could be taken.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The note in the box suddenly became clear as well. This was no gift…“To Serve You” this was a cookbook! [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I was not going to be late for dinner… here. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]OMR [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] With apologies to The Twilight Zone[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Pain Freak]

Had me going, Thanks for an entertaining story. I know it was kind of twilightish, but I liked it.

What's for dessert?

[gurp13]

So, wait... how did you get away? I don't get it.

[Pain Freak]

Originally Posted by gurp13

So, wait... how did you get away? I don't get it.

He was to old and leathery, they threw him back.

[gurp13]

You're lucky, then, dude, 'cause you're so small you're hardly worth the trouble!

'Course I'm too fat and my legs are stringy.

Y'know, if aliens want to eat people, they probably ought to use Nintendo and Playstations as lures instead of bikes.

[PHAT TIRE]

Tell them to send me one.

[shudder]

Dude, it was called To Serve Man. I so totally would have been right there if that was what was on the note in the box...

Scifilm -- TV Files, Twilight Zone: "To Serve Man"

A great tale nonetheless!

shud

[Schecky]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

What's for dessert?

Soylent Green

[OMR]

Originally Posted by shudder

Dude, it was called To Serve Man. I so totally would have been right there if that was what was on the note in the box...

Scifilm -- TV Files, Twilight Zone: "To Serve Man"

A great tale nonetheless!

shud

I didn't want to tip my hand to those who would have remembered this phrase... I was paraphasing it.

OMR