Inevitable

By

Damián Francis

     When I was an eleven year old boy, many people used to ask me why I had panic to ride a bike,  in fact, I had an idea, but I was too young to understand that a single event could bring about endless inevitable fears and phobias that only maturity would be able to help you overcome.

     Riding a bike, one of the most remarkable phobias I used to have in my life, began on January 6 in 1988, when I was only eight years old. This specific day in January is very special for kids in the Dominican Republic because we celebrate children’s day. At that time, we celebrated it totally different from now: children used to invade the streets with their toys and spent the whole day running up and down the paved jungle. I don’t forget the kids with their dolls, toy weapons, Rubik cubes and bikes taking over the streets. Parents, on the sidewalks, looked like watchdogs taking care of their puppies.

     Up to that day, owning a bike had been one of my biggest desires, my mother was always against the idea of buying a bicycle for her kids, and she would say that it was too dangerous for us because there was a lot of traffic in the neighborhood. My father, reacting to my pressure, decided to surprise me,  and bought me a beautiful silver Aerocycle with blue tires and covers, it was  the perfect one, the bike that I had always dreamed about. In the Dominican Republic, parents used to buy the presents for children’s day the day before, and hid them for the day after, of course if it was a bike, like mine, it could not have been hidden because it was a big present.

     I remember, the day before children’s day, I could not sleep, I just repeated in my mind “I wish it was tomorrow”. I got up a couple of times at mid night with the only purpose of touching my brand new vehicle. I do not deny that I thought once or twice that it was a dream. The day after, I got up earlier than usual, took a shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed and waited until 8:00 am to go out and enjoy my super bike; I was ready for bike riding the whole day. I thought that I would not have to pay 25 cents for a bike rental any more. At that time, it was quite common to learn how to ride a bike in a rented bicycle; of course it was the way I had learned. I will never forget that my mother made breakfast, but I did not pay attention, who would think about food on such a special day?

     Before I went out, my mother told me that I was allowed to ride my bike only near the house, I obeyed, but only during the first two hours, then I got bored, and decided to go a little further, a couple of minutes later I would recognize that it was an unmistakable mistake, despite the redundancy. I moved a block further than I was asked, then two, and made a right, went straight ahead, made another right, and after that another until I arrived in Juan Erazo Street. I was so self-confident with my riding skills that got to compare myself with Sean Kelly. 
     Some minutes later, I woke up with an indescribable pain in my whole body. A cripple man who worked at a grocery store was slapping my face. A lot of people were surrounding me, I remember a chubby woman say “this boy has to be taken to the hospital”. I had been hit by a silver 1986 Toyota Corolla car, coincidentally a silver color car, like my ineffable brand new bike.  For about three or four years, I could not ride a bike because I thought the same would happen to me again.I developed an irrational fear for  riding bikes. During the process of becoming a teenager, I started to be more careless. Many of the fears I had up to that moment I started to face them, in order to show my friends that I was courageous and strong, in fact I tried to hide all my phobias because I wanted to be accepted in the group. Not only was I able to ride a bike again, but also to do dangerous things with my friends’ bike like riding on one wheel or with my hands without touching the rudder.