29/2025: The man with the bike.

Image © Jose 2025

There is a guy, a guy around here that has made me pause. Tall, thin complexion but fit, he is probably in his forties, white hair and a fair beard, dresses in nicely striped overalls, and uses a cap that looks like it could be French. He works in the “big house” around the corner – my house and a few others used to belong to the big house a long time ago. He is probably the groundskeeper, I’ve seen him inspecting the fence. He drives an old car that is always parked away in a secluded area, under the trees. And he has a bicycle, a black sort of French high bike, with a leather saddle and high bars, and a large metal basket. I see him two, maybe three times a day up and down the street, he sits up straight, with a smile on his face, and he swerves left and right, owning the street as he rolls, not in a hurry, the basket is usually empty. He looks happy, content with his life, in charge of his own destiny.

This is a real person but feels like a fiction. The way I describe him may as well be fiction, because I have not met the gentleman. He passes by, we are usually doing our own thing, we have seen each other but have not engaged. And true enough, I may write about this guy in the future, after I meet him, and he may end up fulfilling my dreamy description… or not. Real people have real stories, and you know what they say about real life being stranger than fiction. A part of me wants to engage and get to know this guy really bad, become his friend, find out about his stories and invite him for a cold drink when he rides out, serving his gorgeous bike. Part of me doesn’t want to burst the bubble, just getting closer might reveal that I described him all wrong, we might have one of those moments when you meet your favorite radio DJ for the first time. There is something about him that deserves a certain distance, a respectful gaze, a certain admiration which I am sure he wants to project. He is very aware of his surroundings, the same way we see him, he sees us. I wonder how he sees us, if he does at all.

We will naturally meet, he is one of the neighbors. I have met the neighbor in the other corner house, a nice guy who we share a part of the driveway with so he can store his boat when he is not using it. He tells stories of the man that lived in our house, I know they were friends. My wife has met some of the other neighbors, she works from home and bumps into them much more. But this guy, this guy is special, at least in my head. And I wonder why, what about him makes me feel this way. The way he dresses resonates, and I love his bike(what looks like a classic antique in perfect shape) But it might be deeper than that, the way he projects contentment and freedom might be creating a certain type of admiration, as something I look for, something I long for deep down inside. His bike swerving almost annoys me, as something so casual and at the same time repetitive and programmed. It is almost as if he is expecting to be filmed and shown on Instagram. Is this envy instead of admiration? Hmm, don’t know.

We have discussed and would love to get all the close-by neighbors together for a meal, like the family that lived here used to do according to the exchanges with a member of the family, celebrate life, get to know each other better, toast to the old gentleman that lived here till he passed away. I like having neighbors, they can be critical when you need a hand, when you are not around. I had a woman living on the first floor of a place I rented, she was like a mother to me. We had this gorgeous family with their three kids two houses ago, we saw them grow, became sort of family. Four houses ago we were away and the downstairs neighbor had to call the firemen because our house flooded and water started coming down his walls. We moved here in part because of a couple that we love and that we want to be around as they raise their newborn child. I know there are drawbacks, and sometimes neighbors don’t respect your limits, but a street, neighborhood, a community is made of people that learn to respect and support each other, as they are. And we have new neighbors, and I can’t wait to meet them.