Something a little different ...A story

[OMR]

This was originally posted on MTBR.COM... but thought you'd enjoy something different:

[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]A Gift to Serve: Brown came today [/FONT][/SIZE]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[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]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I was not going to be late for dinner… here.[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]OMR[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]... w[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]ith apologies to The Twilight Zone[/SIZE][/FONT]

[tkblazer]

OMR, i think you are getting old, you already posted this up!

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

[Kid A]

its deja vu all over again

sounds like someone been nippin on the bottle in the brown bag

j/k

[OMR]

You guys are just too sharp for me:

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The day started off innocently enough… a beautiful, warm Southern California morning … a good day to escape for a few hours to waiting single track. While loading my trusty 29er single speed into the van, a strange thought suddenly occurred, “What if this was the last time I would be able to ride my bike?”… Where in the hell had that thought come from, I wondered???[/SIZE][/FONT]

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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Shaking my head to clear it, I closed the van door and drove over to my nearby county park. Pulling into the parking lot, I couldn’t help but notice that only a few lonely cars were scattered throughout the large lot. Again, as I unloaded bike, the strange thought re-occurred, “What if this was the last ride I ever do?”[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Ever grateful to be finally on the trail, I settled in to enjoy the feel of warm sunshine on my back and cool breezes blowing gently on my face. I loved the feel and quietness of the single speed, the sound of the large tires rolling over the fallen leaves and twigs. The park, like the parking lot seemed deserted. I seemed to be the only soul on earth… and again, the strange thought sprang to mind. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Alright, alright! ... I decided to confront this unwelcome intruder. What if this was my last ride… so, how would I ride? Would I hammer…. ride until I was a mass of quivering muscles… deep into oxygen debt? Would the ride end in puddle of physical exhaustion? [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I suddenly realized that I had dramatically slowed my cadence. I could almost hear my heart beat. I don’t think in all my years of bike riding I had ever ridden so slow. The bike seemed to have a cadence of its own. I was now merely along for the ride. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Leaving the fire road, I coasted onto the single track and noticed how the sunlight was filtering through the trees. As I powered up a small rise, the bike seemed to float upwards. I remembered thinking, “Am I on drugs?” Ahead an old weather beaten bridge spanned a small slow moving creek. I’ve always quickly ridden over the wooden planking but this time I slowly rolled to a halt in the middle and noticed a small spider crawling down the worn handrail. His progress, like mine, was slow and deliberate. Reaching the ground, he slowly disappeared under the dry yellow leaves the wind had blown up against the bridge supports. I wondered where he was going and what he thought about ... probably trying to stay out of the way of large tires![/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Slowly moving off the old bridge and back unto the beckoning single track, I moved from one sunlit patch to another, in and out of the tree covered shade. The cool wind which had been gently blowing from the south was still. Even the birds had stopped singing. Reaching a small meadow, I allowed the bike to coast to another stop. I waited. I’m not even sure what I waited for; but, I waited. I began to notice movement. Birds in trees jumping branch to branch, bees circling and landing on bright trail-side flowers. A small squirrel quickly crossed the path, stopped looked at me, looked annoyed and quickly dove into a nearby bush. That’s when I noticed the doe. She was 15 feet away, head down grazing on small tufts of grass. I could see her sides moving gently in and out as she slowly wandered closer. I held my breath and noticed several more deer behind her. I stood there for what seemed an eternity, hardly breathing until they slowly moved off. They hadn’t seen me at all. Somehow, I felt strangely satisfied. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The spell broken, I clipped back into the pedals and continued onward to the fire road which took me to the end of the park. From there a single trail lead upwards… which is usually a hard climb on the single speed. Today I felt like somebody had added a couple of extra teeth to the rear cog. I hardly broke a sweat reaching the top of the trail. Funny, I hadn’t run into a single soul yet. I seemed to have the park to myself, my own personal playground.[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The trail back lead to a sweet single track downhill where I’ve left plenty of blood on past rides over the years. It’s a demanding, “don’t let your mind wander”, rocky, wheel stuffing sucker! But, for some reason I just let the bike go, let those big wheels build up momentum…didn’t touch the brakes and held on. I think I know what the Jews felt like when Moses parted the Red Sea. It was impossible but I seemed to float downward locked into a zone that held on to me until the bottom of the trail. I still don’t believe it![/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The ride out of the park seemed to stretch on forever… and I didn’t care. I hardly realized I was back at my van until I slowly rolled into the back bumper. If that was my last ride, it was all I wanted it to be… and why can’t they all be like that?… It occurred to me that sometimes it’s the getting there that’s the most fun… every minute appreciating the journey not the end. Yeah, a universal truth….smell the roses if only for the moment….[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Back to reality, loading the bike back into the van, my thoughts turned to where I was going to ride tomorrow. Last ride?…not on your life Bucko![/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]OMR... slowly losing my mind![/SIZE][/FONT]

[Pain Freak]

Good one, really enjoyed that one!

[1x1clyde]

So it only happens when you are on a 29er????
Alien dinners and good feelings, that is??

[1_fez_rider]

Man....I was waiting for you to say that the dude that ordered the bike saw you riding it down the street and started chasing you...but then it got all weird!

[OMR]

Originally Posted by 1_fez_rider

Man....I was waiting for you to say that the dude that ordered the bike saw you riding it down the street and started chasing you...but then it got all weird!

What's weird about getting abducted by aliens while riding a bike?... happens all the time around here...

OMR

[Pain Freak]

Oh, is that why my arse hurts so bad after these rides?

[OMR]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Oh, is that why my arse hurts so bad after these rides?

Mike,

That's your stand... you're going to blame saddle soreness on alien probes?

LOL...
OMR