The Boy With No Fear

I was on the bus one afternoon coming home from the city. The weather was nice and everything seemed pretty normal. The traffic on Charles St is quite busy this time of day. The bus was full so I was standing towards the front looking out the windows at nothing in particular. As we’re rolling along a kid on a bike caught my attention. He was riding down a street coming up on the left. Given the lack of interesting surroundings, I kept my eye on him.

He looked about 10 years old with dark hair wearing shorts and a striped coloured t-shirt. He was picking up speed as he approached the end of his street. Thinking he was going to stop before busy Charles St he didn’t.

He rode directly into traffic! In one straight line, he crossed in front of the bus, past the next lane then into opposite traffic narrowly missing a tradies ute and an oncoming car in the next lane before he hit the footpath alive and turned left. I gasped in disbelief. As he carried on riding down the street I saw him stand up on his pedals and punch the air yelling something like “yeah!” I couldn’t believe it.

I thought about it later and something occurred to me that made sense.

I bet that kid just watched The Never Ending Story.

Or ET.