BIKINGTHROUGHFULFILLMENT

by Nate Iyer

James was ecstatic. The last day of school before spring break had finally drawn to a close and he and his friends had formed a congregation outside of the school, talking about their plans for the time off. As it turned out, all of them were going somewhere for the week one to Idaho (for some reason), one to Florida, one to Cancun, many to California and New York, and even one to Israel. All, it turned out, except for him. And his old pal Jack.

James, somewhat jealous of the fun trips that the others were to go on, turned to Jack with a proposition: “Let’s make an adventure of our own. ”

“Of what nature?” asked Jack.

“Into nature? That’s a great idea!”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Of course it is Let’s go biking through some trails in the woods.”

Jack came to terms with the idea and, as he accepted it, came to realize that it wasn’t that bad. It was certainly a better plan than the one for their great endeavor the summer before, which had consisted of camping in the woods for a week before running out of food and hitchhiking back home. “Deal.”

And so it was The two went to their respective houses and hopped on their bikes, meeting up again at the school. “Why are we back here?” James complained “I thought we just got out of school.”

“This is the spot equidistant between our houses,” Jack replied. “It’s only fair that we meet up here.”

“Fine. Anyways, apparently there’s a place fifteen miles northeast of here that supposedly has some incredible trails.”

“Doesn’t that seem a bit far?”

“I’m sure we’ll be alright. We’re pros. ”

“If you say so. ”

From there, they embarked on their journey. Jack biked ahead while James, blasting country music from his phone, trailed close behind. Once they had made it most of the way there, they stopped at a local pub for dinner, ordering chicken wings. As Jack finished up his wings, he noticed a group of burly old men at the bar getting increasingly rowdy Suddenly, they heard glass shatter as one of the drunken men threw his beer bottle at another. Jack jumped into action, quickly pulling James towards the door, telling him they had to leave. James in turn grabbed his last chicken wing to take on the go. As they unlocked their bikes and started riding away, they could hear a cacophony of shouting and more glass breaking from the scene at the bar

Soon, they reached the trailhead. “I think it might be getting a bit late,” Jack noted, his voice showing signs of worry This was for good reason, as at this point the sun was close to grazing the treetops.

“Nonsense,” said James. “The show must go on. ” He proceeded to speed down one of the trails, without checking the map first.

Jack followed him down but didn’t get very far until he found that James had fallen off his bike. “What happened?” he asked.

“I skidded out just a tad.”

“I’d say so. ”

James had been ill-prepared for the gravel path he had found himself on. This was because he had brought a road bike (one better for asphalt and pavement) rather than a mountain bike (one designed for all sorts of terrains, namely trails). The solution to this, one he would follow for the most part during the rest of their ride, was simply to travel a bit slower and less recklessly. Though even then it would still be a bumpy ride.

As they traveled deeper into the wilderness, light began to fade at first slowly but then rapidly after the sun had set. Soon, it was completely dark. This, paired with the fact that they had neglected to read the map of the trails beforehand, rendered the guys utterly lost. James, being an expert way finder, had sworn to never use his phone for directions. However, desperation forced him to abandon this principle and he turned to the device for help. Unfortunately, this was to no avail as all that music had drained his battery and his phone was now dead Meanwhile, when Jack got out his phone to look at a map or call for help, he found this useless too as he had no cellular data

“What are we going to do?” Jack asked,

helpless.

“I guess we’ll just have to sleep among the trees,” James replied. “Just like our ancestors did.”

“Didn’t they sleep in caves?”

“That, my friend, was a luxury coveted by a select few. The rest slept among the trees. We now find ourselves in the same situation as they did, so many years ago. ”

After delivering that poetic masterpiece, James began gathering leaves to construct their beds. Jack was tasked with creating pillows out of moss and putting up sticks in the ground around them in aim of deterring predators. They soon fell asleep in their makeshift cots.

At three in the morning, Jack awoke to a ruffling sound around him. Immediately, his mind jumped to the worst—a bear. This revived trauma from their camping trip the summer before, in which they had once seen a bear and its cubs whilst out on a walk and had precariously backed away before (quite foolishly) running in fear. He now heard this one stomp its paws on the ground and use its claws to effortlessly knock down the protective sticks he had put up. Yeah, those were never going to do very much, he thought to himself When he turned to his right, he was shocked to see that James was missing from his bed. At that very moment, he felt two claws clasp his shoulder blades and saw his life flash before his eyes. The action, however, was accompanied by an unconvincing roar followed by laughter Jack turned around to find it was James himself who had grabbed him, and who had been pretending to be the bear all along. “Oh, come on!” he exclaimed, shoving James away. their kindness.

“Did I scare you?” he asked.

“Quite so. ” Jack quickly rolled back to bed. James did so as well, delighted that his trick had worked.

The two woke up late the following morning, having been exhausted from the bike ride and following events of the night before. Now, it was time for them to figure out breakfast before the bike ride back home. “Did you bring anything to eat?” James questioned.

“No,” Jack responded. “To be fair I didn’t think we’d be spending the night.”

“I suppose that makes sense. ”

So, the guys biked around until they found a patch of huckleberry bushes and subsequently ate the whole bunch. “You know, I’m pretty sure there’s a species of plant around here that looks like huckleberries but is highly poisonous,” Jack pointed out.

“Well, I sure hope this isn’t it.”

“Agreed.”

After their unusual breakfast, the guys biked around for a while until finally finding their way out of the woods and back onto the road They stopped by the pub they had eaten at the night before and saw a worker there sweeping up glass from the fight, looking exhausted They offered to help and he gladly accepted, relaxing in one of the booths as they finished the job Once they were done, he got them another set of chicken wings on the house for

From there, the guys biked back to the school before splitting up and going back home. When each opened the front door, however, it became clear that their parents were not happy about their unexplained absences. James was to spend the rest of his break trapped within the confines of his bedroom, only allowed to have his phone as a form of torture as he was to see the photos his friends were sending back from their destinations around the world. Although he didn’t let this on, James didn’t actually regret his biking endeavor, as at least he had gotten in his adventure.

Jack meanwhile was able to shorten his sentence by explaining to his parents why he had gotten back a day later without notice, doing his best not to implicate James in the process. After three long days, he was released on probation (a 9:00pm curfew).

One day, James received a text from Jack which simply read: look outside. He opened his window to see Jack out on the sidewalk with a frisbee in his hand. They went on to spend hours talking and throwing the frisbee back and forth, thankfully never missing and hitting another part of the house. The next day, Jack returned, and the next and the next until the end of break.

On the following Monday, the whole group was sitting around the lunch table, talking about their breaks and the fun trips they went on James and Jack however didn’t feel too left out. Despite some setbacks along the way, they had managed to create their own fun.