Please, may I take a ride now?

The front desk of the Hospital was located not too far from the sittting area. Julius followed closely behind Katrina, as they hurriedly approached the nurse; who was holding a patient's casefile.

"Good evening. How may I assist you?" The nurse; who was dressed in a neatly ironed purple auxilliary nurses' uniform asked them politely.

"We are here to see a mother and two sons who were involved in an accident. I am ..." but before he could finish his introduction, a male doctor, who looked stressed called out his name "Julius Dumoski! I'm Dr. Pedro McAnthony. Please follow me".

The doctor walked into an office and waited for the duo to come in before he shut the door behind them. Then he asked "Who is the young lady with you?" "My sister-in-law". Julius quickly responded before following up with his own question. "Do you know where my family is? Please take me to see them". He sounded strong, but one could sense the fear in his heart from the way he spoke.

"Please hold on. First, I might need to ask the lady to excuse us" The Doctor said, as he opened the door once again to lead Katrina out. He pointed towards a sitting area as he said to her "You can take a seat over there. We would only take a minute". Katrina hesitated a bit, but eventually walked out of the office reluctantly, as another set of tears began to roll down her cheeks.

The Doctor leaned gently against his desk, close enough to Julius as he sighed deeply.

Hmmm!

"The accident occured at about half past three. The hospital got a distress call, and paramedics were dispatched to the location immediately. According to the officers, the accident involved a truck and a Camero, which I believe was your wife's car". The doctor stood upright and walked up to Julius, as he placed his right palm on the latter's left shoulder. " Your wife and one of your sons were reported to have died on impact". As Julius heard this, he fell out of his chair, and sat on the floor of the doctor's office, as tears began to flow from his eyes.

Julius began to think of how he and his beloved wife had started back then in high school. He was not from a wealthy home, and neither was she. However, she didn't belong to his social class, as he was an example of the poor, while she could pass for a middle class type girl. He was always being mocked by his classmates because he rode an old bicycle, which looked like it was obviously passed to him from his ancesstors. Julius was brilliant, but he had no friends. He was always by himself.

One afternoon, as Julius was getting ready to ride home after the day's classes, a group of guys from his class approached him and started their usual mockery.

"Hey Old Man Jully! Wasn't that one of the bicycles used by postmasters during the second world war"? One of the boys in the group said.

"Hahaha!! Are you sure you didn't pick it out of the trash"? Said another boy.

Fortunately, along came a transfer student from another town, whose parents just moved into town. She was dressed in a neatly sown gown and she had a beautiful rose band holding her long dark hair together in a bun. She walked up to him and placed her hands on the seat of the bicycle.

"Wow! Is this the 1960's Western Flyer Bicycle? My dad always spoke of his bicycle, how elegant it was, and how it made him feel on top of the world" She had an amazing beem of excitement in her eyes, as she looked at the bicycle with an obvious crave for a ride. "This is vintage you know?" She continued, as she quickly got onto the bicycle. However, at this point, she realized how rudely she has acted, not even exchanging pleasantries with, or taking permission from the owner of the bicycle before taking a seat on it and was ready to ride off joyfully.

"Pardon my manners! My name is Helen, and I'm new here. My father has just been transfered to this town, and we had to move along". She quickly gave a brief history of herself, before she went ahead to ask "Please, may I take a ride now"?