The Accident

So, this morning’s ride was wrought with danger. I don’t know why.
Maybe I have my own male ego to blame. Just as I started down Franklin Street this morning, another male biker, the shiny corporate kind, sped past me, the click click of his gears switching in rapid succession sounding as he effortlessly glided further and further away from me. My gears, on the other hand, are always slipping into the hardest one to peddle.
As I watched him disappear into the horizon, I pumped my legs faster and lost all sense of caution. Then I caught out of the corner of my eye a large black SUV crossing the four lane road with a timing that put me right in front of it’s silver grill at the most inconvenient moment. I slammed on my brakes.
Whether she had been aware of me before or not, I can’t say for sure, but the silver headed woman stopped her vehicle in the middle of the road and waved her boney hands in a gesture that beckoned me to continue. Stuck in high gear and with much effort I peddled on.
And then there was the green light that, at the exact moment I swerved into the middle of the lane and resolved to speed through it, changed to yellow and then to red. Bikes do not travel as fast as cars, and I forget this often. The light had been red for much too long before I wearily rode through the intersection eyeballing the waiting cars.
Shortly after that, my adrenaline racing, a tractor-trailer started backing into a plastics plant. I maneuvered to the front of it and into oncoming traffic when I realized there was a car coming from the opposite direction. I slammed on the breaks. I waited and waited feeling the hatred of all the drivers I had pissed off for the last few blocks as they too waited behind me. As the truck pulled back and then forward, I made my move circling around the back of it and hoping to escape my shame.
But the accident happened before any of this. As I was approaching an intersection, I glanced over my shoulder to check for turning cars and to keep tabs on another male corporate biker who had been behind me for a block. My bike traveling at a good clip, as I turned back around my right eye made contact with a very stiff tree branch. I came to an abrupt halt.
Being single now, I’ve felt more of an urge to compete. I can’t help. It’s innate, but I think it might kill me soon.