Chapter 67: The best part of Fridays

Jeffrey headed up the hill. He headed toward the bike rack, finding his vehicle he unlocked the chain around his motor scooter.

Earlier that year, his family tried to arrange a carpool with another family in the neighborhood. Long story short, he got left behind a few times due to miscommunication.

Jeffrey didn't mind it, his initial thought was actually.

"If my parents could walk home for 5 miles as a kid so can I!"

He naively carried a saxophone case (which he changed from a clarinet mind you), the three mile walk home. Looking at google maps it was 3.3 miles, around half way and climbing the hill just past another neighborhood.

Jeffrey sat under a tree, the nearby pond was full of ducks and fish as the rays of sunlight shimmered on the still water. His heavy black saxophone case and backpack lying beside him. It took him 3-4 hours to walk back home, with a pit-stop at his primary school and another at the local park. He used their water fountains to quench his thirst.

During his birthday, his parents decided to get him a scooter so that it'd be easier to get back home. They tried to make him stay at school or go to the local library, but Jeffrey got so bored waiting for his parents to get off work. He kept walking home, he also didn't have a phone so his parents were quite worried a few times he suddenly arrived at home.

Usually Thursdays was the time Jeffrey decided to make the long trek because school let out an extra hour early.

This time he had enough money to take a taxi. He also had his personal cellphone, the only other personal purchase he made before Preston and Samantha joined. Although in the interest of saving money and being thrifty, plus the fact he enjoyed the feeling of independence as he headed home.

Jeffrey grabbed his gear, a black skateboard helmet he found in the garage, a pair of old gloves to keep his hands warm from the 18mph wind, and he secured his saxophone to the back with a bike lock.

Jeffrey clipped the belts of the backpack tightly to his chest and tugging once to see if it was properly secured and zipped up. He departed the school.

Taking the bike lane, he cut through the long lines of traffic that formed near the pickup area and sped down the hill. The motor wasn't strong enough to go faster than gravity was carrying him, so he stopped twisting the throttle.

Jeffrey could still feel the wind on his face, it was pretty cold. However the familiar scenery and churches appeared atop the hill.

"Almost a quarter of the way there', Jeffrey thought to himself.

Twisting again on the handle, he could feel the engine running out of juice. His scooter was only 20Vs and only lasted 2 hours. It took 12 hours to charge overnight and the battery usually deteriorated in three months. The company that made it usually only made cheap metal scooters and skateboards. So it was no surprise that the battery and engine were so bad. Presently, it was the only motor scooter available for kids. So Jeffrey kept gunning the engine.

The poor scooter crawled up the hill, eventually Jeffrey gave up and decided to get off and push his vehicle. If it was a bad day, he'd waste the battery inching up the hill. However, he forgot to give his scooter the full charge, so he'd have to push a little.

Past the first hill, Jeffrey was going at a much faster 7mph, sometimes he'd average around 3-4 mph is he was lucky. He'd have to make the most of this downhill to make it over the next upward slope.

Breezing past a few more neighborhoods, Jeffrey spotted the street light and guardrail he first crashed at. The first few times he attempted to go faster and faster, upwards of 22-25mph. The sidewalk still had the tire marks and black trail of when he scraped the plastic battery holder of the scooter. Jeffrey injured his knees quite badly.

This time however it was different, like the racing manga and anime he watched (Wangan Midnight and initial D). He ducked into the wind trying to will his scooter to go faster.

15mph, 18mph, 20mph. The brake handles still had a shiny silver-chrome shine to them, showing they weren't used often. About 2/3rds of the way down, Jeffrey pulled on the breaks. He was still going 23mph.

"Can I go faster?", Jeffrey asked himself.

Trying to calculate his speed he determined, "I should be ok."

A yellow street sign flashed by, the route Jeffrey had chosen didn't have any stop signs, but there were a few stoplights he'd have to time properly if he wanted to make it home with the power that he still had.

The first stoplight had just turned green, but he was still 1 minute away from arriving.

Jeffrey let go of the breaks and tried to reach the intersection. The light changed to yellow.

"Do I keep going or do I hit the breaks?", Jeffrey considered.

Jeffrey's hand hovered over the break for a moment. Trying to feel his way, he intuitively felt he could reach the light in time and grabbed the scooter handles.

"KEEP GOING", Jeffrey shouted in his mind.

The sun was already starting to go down. Winter meant that it got darker early and he wasn't allowed to ride his scooter at night.

"I should make it", Jeffrey said to himself.

"I should make it", Jeffrey reached the white crosswalk lines.

"I made it!", Jeffrey thought as he reached the other side just as the lights had turned green. The stoplights had already turned red, but Jeffrey had already gone too fast to stop.

Jeffrey still had halfway to go, but the two steepest hills were behind him. He coasted the way home, having to push the last part of the journey to his doorstep.

"Finally home", Jeffrey thought.

His front porch was still covered in the green plants his family grew, a Christmas tree could be seen through the window. A small patch of grass that they called the front yard.

As he took off his helmet and gloves, he pushed the scooter inside.

"Haah", Jeffrey let out a sigh of relief. "I'm home"