Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

My boys and I thought of this story this morning.

Bill’s Haunted Bike

By Keith, Neil and Alan Wilcox

Bill had been wanting a bicycle for a long time.  His family didn’t have much money though and so couldn’t afford one for him.  Bill’s father told him to wait for his birthday and by then the family would be able to get him one.  Bill felt happy that his family cared enough to get him a bike, even if he had to wait for his birthday.  Nevertheless, Bill was an impatient boy and decided he’d spend all his savings on a bike, even if it had to be a cheap bike.  After all, the other kids in school all had bikes, and he was starting to feel a bit left out. 

He had the conversation with his dad on Friday, and on Saturday morning Bill went to the shoe box in his closet and counted his money.  He counted several years worth of odd dollars and coins he had found, holiday money from his grandma, and whatever was left of his allowances that he had decided to save.  It came out to 187 dollars and some cents.  “This surely is not going to buy anything spectacular.” he said to himself.  But there was no harm in investigating, so he shoved the money in his backpack and walked 9 blocks to the bike shop. 

The selection at the shop was a bit sparse with only 187 dollars to spend, but as he was pondering his choices the manager came to him with an offer.  A boy had returned a bike the week before.  The boy complained that the bike had a mind of it’s own and had thrown him in the gravel and jumped on him.  The manager explained how the kid came into the store, bruised and dejected, with the scratched up bike by his side.  He explained that he couldn’t find it in his heart to deny the kid at least a partial refund and had accepted the bike for resale.  Apparently the kid was more than happy to take whatever he could get in return for the defective, or according to him, haunted bike.

Bill had a dilemma to deal with.  How badly did he really want a bike anyway?  Badly enough to risk buying a haunted bike and getting hurt for his trouble?  Then again, he wasn’t superstitious.  But, the managers story did sound convincing.  In the end, Bill decided that he wanted the bike more than he believed in ghosts.  He gave the bike a quick spin around the parking lot, didn’t find anything wrong with it, and asked the manager how much it would cost.  He walked out of the store with a scratched bike and 87 dollars in his backpack. The ride home was a short 9 blocks away and Bill was excited to give the bike it’s first road test. He hopped on and began to ride.  Smooth sailing.

But then things started to go badly.  On the first block Bill noticed that the bike felt slightly wobbly and kept pulling to the right.  Bill started to think that maybe the bike actually was haunted and that he had made a terrible decision in buying it.  And then came disaster.  There was a giant oak tree in front of the public library which was about halfway to Bill’s house.  As he rode past the tree the bike suddenly swerved hard right and plowed directly into it.  Bill was thrown to the ground, and sure as shoot the bike landed on top of him.  “Yup, it’s a haunted bike” Bill muttered as he sat, defeated, on the grass.  He kept sitting there for another 45 minutes staring at his bike, thinking. 

As he sat staring a revelation came to him, slowly.  He said it out loud, “If this bike is haunted then why is it sitting here next to me and not moving by itself?”  And he continued, “I’ve never seen a ghost, I’ve never believed in ghosts, I have no reason to believe this bike is haunted apart from the words of people I don’t know.”  Then he recalled something his Karate instructor once told him.  “You won’t win every contest you enter, but if you doubt your ability to win then you won’t.”  Bill thought about the doubt that had crept into his mind when the bike store manager had told him the story of the other kid who crashed.  He remembered feeling that nugget of doubt grow, and how it had stuck.  Then he felt stupid.  

He got on his bike, and rode home.  Then he rode to the park, then to the drug store, then to the beach.  And, when it was starting to get dark, he rode home again.

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