from hero to zero

Circa 1991. I was practicing riding a motorcycle with my buddy - Wai. When I say practicing, it is understandable that we’re actually learning how to rear up and take a sandy corner on a pair of cheap stock tyres. Ok, back to the story.

After we had our sufficient dose of delivering some adventurous stunts at a nearby clearing, we decided to return to our base (our homes). Both of us were riding side by side .. without helmets… doing about 60 kph at a relatively small road. We then reached to an elevated section of the road where we lose visibility of anything that approaches beyond it. But because the road was a seldom traveled one, we weren’t really expecting anything behind that blind spot.

It appears that we’re wrong. There’s a fucking kid riding his cheap bicycle right in the middle of the road. Alright, he wasn’t even riding it .. he was PUSHING it. And because both us watched plenty of movies, we decided to be heroes that day. Instead of ramming our motorcycles into that mongoloid kid, we veered our motorcycles off road to avert the him.

Wai to the left and myself to the right. Wai landed himself into a drain … while I landed on a grassy plain full of obscured rocks. I remembered myself flung out from the motorcycle and landed flat on the ground - almost hitting a rock as big as The Rock’s ass. When I got up… I saw the following :

1) my bike was badly wrecked. Gear pedal was bent backwards and brake jammed.
2) Wai was laying unconscious by the drain. His bike inside the drain.
3) a group of villagers came running checking us out.
4) the kid was crying .. still standing in the middle of the road.

The first thing that crosses my mind was to fix that goddam gear/brake. I then ran to a nearby house to borrow a hammer - but I was berated by a housewife for riding recklessly. Already feeling paranoid about the accident, I cussed her back “Damn old lady” for refusing to lend me her hammer. By that time, I saw the group of villagers were carrying Wai to a nearby grass clearing - performing a gang bang or something. Kidding… they were reviving him.

I then ran back to my badly damaged bike, dislodged the stuck brake … and started to push it back home. There were some housewives jeering at me but, I ignored them - for I was too distracted to do any explaining to them. The kid’s safe … and that’s good enough –> hero mentality.

Then, I approached another nearby home to borrow a hammer. Sure enough, a very kind old man lent me a hammer. Without further ado, I began to work on that defective gear pedal. And while I was busy working on that, a middle aged man who resembled George Harrison approached me and asked … in a very polite manner :

“Are you ok boy ? u need to go to the clinic or something ?”
“I’m ok thanks…. but my bike’s not doing good”
“What actually happened back there ?”
“We’re riding like usual .. then there’s this fucking kid standing right in the middle of the road”
“Then ?”
“And then ? we crashed to the side to avoid hitting him lah ! ”
“Oh… ok”
“That stupid kid’s parents ought be put to sleep for letting him stray like this.. cheeeebyee..”
“……..”
“Have u seen my friend ? how is he doing ?”
“He got a bad gash on his forehead. Need stitches or something .. someone sent him to clinic”
“How bout that kid ? he hurt or something ?”
“Yeah.. he’s doing good. Just shocked …still crying”
“Fucked up kid. Not even a scratch … cry like a sissy somemore”
“………”
“You happen to know the kid’s parents ? Help me educate them”
“Errrr … I’m the kid’s father”

I was speechless after learning the fact that George Harrison was the kid’s father. With a beet ruddy blushing face, I dropped the hammer and immediately pushed my bike to bail off from the place. I had a great deal of scolding from my father after that… but what hurt me the most was - to become back to zero for scorning the kid’s father.