The bicycle beside the bench

An original fictional account of an invented bicycle practice session.

My brother wheeled the bicycle into the empty car park and rested it against a bench. Without any cars around it, the bicycle looked strangely exposed, as if it had been placed there to announce what I still could not do.

I had spent a week preparing excuses. The weather might change. The tyres might need checking. At thirteen, I thought I was too old to wobble around while someone held the back of my seat. That was why I had agreed to practise early on Sunday, before the sports centre opened and anyone could see me.

My brother lowered the seat and told me to put one foot on a pedal. The bicycle tipped towards him at once. Every small sound seemed loud: the scrape of my shoe, the clicking chain, my brother's breath as he pushed me upright. I gripped the handlebars so tightly that my fingers began to ache. When he told me to steer left, the front wheel turned sharply right, as if it had joined an argument on the other side.

“Forget the whole car park,” my brother said. “Just reach that drain cover.”

The drain cover was only a few metres away. I stared at its metal squares instead of the windows of the sports centre. My brother pushed, I pedalled and the bicycle shook beneath me. Then the shaking softened. The drain cover slipped under the front wheel, but I kept moving until I reached the far bench.

When I stopped, my brother was standing halfway across the car park. I accused him of letting go without warning. He pointed out that I had ridden further without him than I had with him. For a moment, I could think only about the empty space where his hand should have been. Then I looked back at the distance I had crossed. It no longer seemed like a place where I might fall. It was a route I had already travelled.

“Again,” I said.

On the next attempt, I reached the entrance. After that, I rode around the painted spaces and practised turning between them. When people began arriving for the morning activities, I hardly noticed them. Before we left, I asked my brother to raise the seat. I wanted to ride the bicycle home, and I chose the longer road.

How are the narrator's feelings presented as the bicycle practice session progresses? Support your answer with references to the passage.

You should consider:

• the narrator's feelings at the beginning;
• the importance of reaching the drain cover;
• how the ending contrasts with the beginning.