Born to be a biker

You're going to read a story about one man whose destiny was defined from his birth. He knew definitely WHO he is in this world, he worked for his dream overcoming all obstacles... He paid a lot for his egoism and light-mindedness...




       
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 It was the year 1998 In a town named Moscow a woman met a man. Soon they got married and had their first baby. It was a girl. Then, after four years, when a girl was old enough they had another baby. It was a boy. A family with two children started having problems connected with the prices for clothes, food, education and stuff like that. They moved to another town, which was considered to be suburb and had low quality of life. For some time at first they were living in a hostess, but then they bought a small flat on the edge of the quarter near the forest. The woman had her third baby there.

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When the smallest child was four years old he got his first bike. It was actually not very good. It was his elder brother’s. This bicycle had four wheels. One was at the front and the other three were at the back of the bicycle. The boy liked riding in the forest. He drove along the crooked forest path to the local river, but not to the place where everyone was staying. He drove to the lonely bank of the river. He liked the atmosphere there. After his trips he often came home very happy, excited and inspired.
Sometimes he drew what he had been feeling and they were very good drawings. Every year this boy made the same wish for his birthday. He wanted to become a famous bicycle rider, he wanted to take part in competitions and win prizes...
The time went by. The elder girl was finishing the school. She had very good marks and she had a lot of chances to have a successful future as a lawyer. The school term was finishing. The summer was waiting for everybody behind the doors. All the children of this family succeed at school. Their parents were very happy and they decided to give a present to each child. The girl got a beautiful white dress, the elder brother got a book “20.000 leagues under the water” and he liked it very much. The youngest boy got a new bike.
No one could understand his obsession. While the other children were playing near their homes or in the parks, he was training in the cyclepark made by himself. While his friends were spending holidays in the camps, he was inventing new tricks and trying to do them correctly. Then he drove to the town and showed his abilities. No one was interested in him.

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One summer his parents gave him some money to go to the camp. He took it and bought the ticket. He bought a ticket not to the camp, but to the town named M… He took his bike, some clothes, his drawing album, pencils and got on the train. He didn’t know if he’d ever be back and if he’d ever see his family again. But his addiction was too strong to let him stay home. He wanted to be a celebrity rider.
When he got off the train he bought a map of the town. He looked up for the places where he could ride his bicycle. He met an old old lady who agreed to give him a place to live.
It was his second day in a town M… He woke up and saw a strange room. For some time, he didn’t understand where he was, where his parents were, his brother and sister. After a while he remembered what’d happened. He realized that he’s in a strange town alone. He became afraid. One little hot tear moved out of his eye… He remembered his family, but he also remembered the people who did not pay any attention to him. He decided to prove to them that he’s SOMEONE and he’ll get what he wants! He wiped away the tear from his cheek, stood up, took his bike and went out.
The view of the town was fantastic! There were a lot of bright flowers everywhere; he could hear the magic sounds of beautiful music. A lot of bright funny people were rushing around him. A lot of them pushed him hard, but he didn’t pay attention to them.
He looked up at the sky. The sun was shining and the birds were flying and singing something in their own language. The high magnificent buildings were looking down at him from up above. He smiled at them. He saw a lot of sunny lines on the windows. This town blinded him with its brightness. He got on his bike and drove along the main street. There were so many shops, restaurants, boutiques, offices and clubs. He didn’t know where to look first. When he was crossing the road he was almost killed by a car. The driver was very rude at him for some reasons he hadn’t understood. This was the second time he felt scared. But despite of this he continued his adventure. It was the first time he had ever seen such a big city… For his second day there that was enough. He turned around and drove home. The old lady gave him some food and he fell asleep. The day was finished. At night he saw dreams about his family and his cyclepark, about this town and the old kind lady. His dreams were quite calm and he was relaxed…

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The next day he woke up very early because of the strange noise coming from the next room. He went out of his room and saw the old lady. She was standing her back to him and she was moving very strangely. He came closer… She was standing near the big old table holding a big old hammer. She was preparing the meat for supper. He said “Good morning” and asked if he could help, but the old lady said “No” very abruptly. She told him not to disturb her while making supper and he went out with his bike.
He found no place to eat, because of the time – everyone was sleeping then. There were not a lot of people and noise. It seemed that the town was still sleeping. He pulled out the map of this town, but after some time he put it back without looking at it. He thought that it would be interesting just to go by chance and after that he would get out of this situation. Then he found a place where a new house was being built. He got closer and saw a very good pile of materials prepared for the house. He got on the top of this pile and invented some very original stuff connected with riding there. He increased his speed and did it for the first time…
Eventually he became conscious in a strange place with the white walls and the people wearing white. He thought that he was sleeping and he tried to pinch his leg. “Oh!”- he couldn’t keep his scream. He was feeling a strong pain in his ankle. “Where’s my bike?? Will I ever be able to ride it??” – were his first thoughts. He started realizing something. When he was trying to do something like a frontflip no hands he fell down and lost consciousness and now he was in hospital.
He saw a doctor coming towards him. The doctor gave him some anesthetic and injection. The boy fell asleep. When he woke up he saw a man. The man was holding a camera and he said to him: “You have a very strange injury. What have you done? I found you near the pile of materials for a new house lying in a very strange pose”. “Who are you?” – said the boy incomprehensively. “I’m a journalist. I should have found some information about the new house and I … and I found you. And your bike. You must be a good cyclist?” “Mmm…yeah, maybe… I don’t know. I was just training there”. “You must be a good guy. I want to write something about you. The doctor says you’ll be OK tomorrow. Maybe… Could you show me your riding?” “Yeah, I think so. See you”. “See you tomorrow!”
“What a strange man”, - he was thinking, - “maybe he can help me with my dream???” A question stayed without an answer.
The next day he saw his bike. It was really awful – dirty and all its speed selectors were broken. He left the hospital, took off all his speed selectors and washed his bike in a hospital pond. He saw the yesterday’s journalist near the pond watching him and smiling. “You’re very funny!” – said he when the boy came closer. “My bike was dirty!”
They came to one of the most famous town’s squares and the boy showed his talent to the journalist and to all the people in the square. Someone said he was crazy and turned their eyes away. But most of the people liked him, his style and his bike. He had drawn on it something like GRAFFITY and it looked fantastic! The journalist took some really good photos and asked people what they thought about this guy. Most of them answered that it was the first time they’d ever seen such a good rider and that they liked him very much. The journalist asked his phone number, but the boy said he didn’t live there; he was only rending a room. The journalist smiled and asked to follow him. He found a flat for the boy and said that a very good bicycle rider didn’t need to pay for it because the report about him would cost very much and the journalist could just give a flat as a present to a rising star of professional cyclists’ sky. The boy was unbelievably happy. “He jumped on the stairs, eating apples and pears – that careless young person from…” the suburbs.

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His career developed very fast. He earned his living by his competitions. He always had the 1st, 2nd or rarely 3rd places and got very precious awards. The journalist was his sponsor and he also became a rich and famous person. He left his previous job and became a businessman.
The small boy from the suburbs and now the first rider of the town wrote some letters to his family, but he didn’t receive any answers.
He had a lot of girlfriends and almost every night he had a new one. But he wanted to have the only girl – his wife. He wanted to love her and have children.
The number of his competitions was incredible. He could have seven competitions a week. He was exhausted. He was already 30 years old and he had nothing apart from money – no wife, no children, no parents and no friends. He wanted to stop it….but he couldn’t. Riding his bike was the only thing he could earn money by. He would have died from hunger if he had stopped riding a bike.
One day he asked his sponsor about a short holiday. The sponsor didn’t agree for some time but gave in after a while. He gave him a five-day holiday.

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He’s finally home after all the years of living in the big city!!! But… what had happened here? The houses are different from those, old and ugly which he remembered from his childhood. Everything is different… He couldn’t recognize the names of the streets, the shops, the scenery and even the people. Having a lot of problems he eventually found the place where his house was. It was devastated and burnt. There was just a place without any trees or paths, without life… He fell down on the ground and burst into tears. Afterwards he found out that his farther had stolen some food from one market to feed his hungry children and had got into prison for many years. His mother had become a drunkard and had died five years before. His sister is now somewhere abroad with her rich husband and no one knows anything about her. And his brother had become a scientist. Now he’s trying to feed his big family and works day and night without any rest.
The very big star of cycling went to the nearest bank, opened an account for his brother and gave him all his money.
Then he went to the place, where his house was and drunk a dose of acid he had bought in a town’s drugstore. His success finished quickly… just like it had started…