Biker Under Fire

Scott pushed the pedals hard on his bike as he propelled his way up the bank barn hill. The limestone gravel popped under the off-road bicycle tires leaving little clouds of gray dust in the young man's wake. The ten-year-old sped past the big sliding doors of the red bank barn and past the open shop door. Uncle David was burning a pile of trash across the driveway. Scotty waved as he passed. He rode up to the sugar camp wire and reached in front of him and grabbed the wire in between the barbs and passed it over his head with an ease that could only have been acquired with much practice. He glanced at the pile of locust posts against the west end of the sugar camp as he rode towards the tractor drive at the lower corner of the pasture. 

The pasture was on a steep hill; the kind of hill that made people joke about the cows having legs that were longer on one side of their body than the other. The driveway Scott was on ran diagonally from the southeast corner of the pasture to the northeast corner and acted as an access road to the field on the top of the hill. Scott pedaled hard until he got all the way to the top of the hill. He turned around and took in the view below him. The big blue Harvestore silos stood out against the backdrop of the corn field to the left and the red barn behind. The weathered, gray walls of the sugar camp and its multicolored roof were partially concealed by a large oak tree. Uncle David's fire created thick, black and gray smoke that curled and billowed into the sky in direct contrast to the white fluffy clouds until it dissipated into the atmosphere.

“This view never gets old,” the young man commented out loud to nobody.

He stood straddling his bike for another minute before pushing off down the hill. He pedaled frantically for a few seconds until he gained enough speed and stood up on the pedals allowing his knees to cushion his body against the bumps of the rough road. He veered off the high side of the drive allowing his momentum to carry him up the hill until he almost came to a stop. Then he turned back down the hill to the driveway and right back up the hill again. He repeated this cycle several times until he sped off the end of the hill back onto the main gravel drive. He had a radiant smile on his face as he passed under the sugar camp wire. 

As he coasted past the shop, his elation was cut short by a sudden explosion. The young man caught a glimpse of a fiery burst in his right-hand peripherals as he lunged away from his uncle's fire. He landed on the rough gravel and rolled frantically away from what he could only assume was a terrifying inferno. He scrambled to his feet and reached for his bicycle and pulled it dramatically away from the blaze. He stood with his left hand on his handle bars and his right hand on his seat and tried desperately to regain control of his breathing. 

His heartbeat slowed down and seemed to move from his throat back to his chest. Scott quit hearing his heartbeat in his ears as his brain began to register a different sound. The sound he heard was the sound of his uncles laughter. Scott was standing directly in front of the shop door. He turned around and was surprised to find his uncle David laughing hysterically with his head back and his mouth wide open. The young man found this to be entirely inappropriate because he was certain that he had almost died.

After a few moments, the hysterical uncle attempted to explain himself.

“Oh my goodness,” he chuckled. “That was by far the funniest thing I have seen all day. I'm sure that explosion sounded huge to you and the shooting flame must have looked nearly lethal from you perspective. From where I was standing, it wasn't nearly as dramatic. Your reaction didn't loose any of the drama though. I was burning out a few old oil filters and one of them must have developed a gas bubble and exploded. That's what the noise was and the flames were the burning oil shooting out of the hole. You and your bike were not in in any real danger.”

Scott heaved a sigh of embarrassment and pushed his bike away from the shop without a response as his uncle shook his head in amusement.