First Puddles

7.5.06

Zee has learned to ride a bike today. True, he is almost six, and true, the bike has training wheels, but this is a big accomplishment for him.

This late start is largely due to the lack of a bike at the age when most of his friends learned to ride, and the presence of too much sense when he finally did have a bike. The blasted thing could kill him, after all.

Zee's world is spiked with melodrama. He trudges through life with the conviction that the universe is conspiring against him, and this includes his bike.

But today he was ready.

We went the long way around the block, which involved a good deal of whining that the pedals were too hard, and a dozen times of getting stuck midway up a hill. Bee was a great sport at hopping off his own bike to give Zee the needed push to get going again.

It had stormed the night before, and as we approached a stretch of leftover rainwater, Zee proclaimed, "My first puddle!" and gleefully (and slowly) pedaled through the middle of it.

And as I watched him ride out in front of me, his back speckled with gray puddle water, I felt a certain measure of satisfaction in his joy and evident pride in this accomplishment, however belated it may be.