My red bicycle gets a new life

When I first moved to New York I hardly ever left Greenwich Village (where I lived during my first year in the city) except to venture on foot or by bus to the NYU Dental Center (where I worked for a brief period of time) or some other such place. Then I moved to an apartment on the Lower East Side, and found that I really needed a bicycle to get around the city. So, one Saturday morning I headed out to one of the outdoor flea markets in Chelsea and found a lovely little red bike. Apparently it belong to a some aging woman who felt it was too dangerous to ride around on a bike in New York in the 1990s.

The reason I'm bringing this up today is because a couple of hours ago I sold this very same bike to an 11-year-old girl; or rather to her father. I haven't really used the bike in the last couple of years. It's been in our kitchen where the warm temperature and time caused all the air to evaporate from the tyres. And what's more, I thought it would be good to leave it here instead of taking it with me to England a few weeks from now.

It wasn't a great bike, but it was a good bike, and it worked well while I had it. I have a feeling it's about to start a new life in Brooklyn now as the main means of transportation for a girl who's about to start her own journey towards a new life as she enters puberty in the crazy city we know as New York.

Once again I don't own any wheels...and strangely it feels good, at least for now.