A Puzzlement

Walking at the Little Blue River last night, I saw something that still has me scratching my head.

A young man and a 10 or 11ish boy on bikes approached us from the opposite direction. From a distance, the boy's motion looked odd, but I couldn't figure out what made it so. As they got closer, I could see that he wasn't peddling the bike. Instead, he was using his left leg to push it along, as one would a scooter or a skateboard. Except, he was seated on the bike.

As they passed me, I could see that not just the pedal, but the entire pedal arm was missing from the left side of the bike.

Neither the boy nor the man had any bike pieces sticking from their pockets or their persons. Neither appeared concerned or distressed. They rolled past as though it were completely normal for a stocky, red-headed boy covered in freckles to be using one leg to propel his bike through the woods on a beautiful Friday evening.

Okay, check that. Normal is a poor choice of words. If I've learned anything on this trip through time, it's that normal is a pretty narrow concept. Typical. As though it were typical.

Based on these guys' demeanor, I don't think the bike was broken. I think there's a story there. I barely saw the river or the wildflowers for the rest of my walk. I was too busy trying to figure it out.