Half a donut and an undone cycle chain

A memorable mini-adventure. It’s amazing how the smallest of things we do, things we don’t think about can make somebody’s day. I call it a poem-story, because the paragraphs are short and broken and there are a few stray rhymes too.

On this fine Friday afternoon, I cycled down to the closest stationary store from campus, located in the middle of a mini-mall not 6 and a half minutes away.

I hopped back on my cycle after a quick route check, when I heard a ‘cheek’ and felt a small jolt under my feet, as my cycle chain fell loose. I was there to buy a felt-tip pen for an exam two weeks hence.

Trudging the way back to campus, I realized how hot the day really was, and how quickly I whiz to places on my trusty cycle.

Exhausted from the effort, I sat in the shade of the study lounge, drinking some water and doing some math, having resigned myself to walking back home.

Ah but YouTube existed, and I used to fix cycle chains all the time as a kid. Had I grown that lazy and stupid as a twenty-something?

After a nice man on YouTube taught me to release the tension in a geared cycle chain and before I stepped out in the sun to recreate, I mustered enough courage to solve a quiz on sustainability hosted in the study lounge, with the kind people giving away half a donut as reward.

Turns out I solved it much quicker than my peers, as informed by the people who hosted the thing. “You’re making me blush” I thought to myself as I received the compliment, unsure why I didn’t say it out loud.

Half a chocolate donut down the bunker and confidence restored, I walked out to set my cycle right. There were two guys chatting to my left and a girl seated to my right, soaking in the sunlight as I got my hands dirty with grease.

The trouble was that I needed another set of hands to release the tension as I pulled the chain back in place. Both parties saw me struggle, and being my wallflower self, I phoned my friend (who wouldn’t show for 2 hours) instead of asking them for help.

5 more minutes into my struggle, the nice girl on the right offered to help. I flaunted my palms, black with grease, “You could meet the same fate”, I said. “I don’t mind getting my hands dirty :))” she said.

And lo, two minutes later, the cycle chain was fixed. With wrists black as coal and a simile from ear to ear, I thanked her and offered to buy her a snack for her troubles.

I assume she was a wallflower like me, because she bolted like a rabbit, muttering something about a class she had to get to and traveling next week.

I didn’t catch her name, but the kindness of strangers really does make the world go round.