BikeQuest

“Down by the river, by the cartwheel, by the tree, you might find a lady waiting for her sailor family—”

The cheery guitar strains of “The River Lady” filter through Fen’s dreams. But that’s not what wakes him: it’s the tooth-rattling buzz of the phone against the desktop, sending him bolt upright—and then unintentionally wheeling across the floor in his chair, as his eyes fly open.

“Who? What?” he shouts, flailing about until his hand finds purchase on the edge of his desk, and he manages to roll himself back to it. His mobile phone buzzes with a cascade of synth notes, and Pala’s display photo fills the screen.

The anxiety evaporates at once, and he breathes deeply, glancing at the window. Daylight seeps through his thin blue curtains, glowing off the bed where he should have been sleeping. It’s not the first time he’s dozed off on his homework at nine in the evening, and it certainly won’t be the last.

Hitting answer, he puts the phone against his ear.

“Ooooye, Fen!” Pala draws out the syllables in singsong, the notes crackling in the speaker. There's a lilt to her tone that tells him she's got something exciting to share.

"Hey, Pala," he mumbles, rubbing his eyes with the back of his palm. “What’s going on?”

“How’s it today? How are you?”

“Kind of sleepy, but mostly good.”

“Did I—did I wake you up? Sorry!”

“Nah, nah, what’s up?”

“Guess what? I just found…a lead!”

He knows what she must be referring to at once. The case of the hidden footpath up Puku Uliuli has been Pala’s big project of late; there is a stretch of rainforest along 'Ulu Road, extending up to the bank of the Fragrant River, that Pala passes every day on her way to the bus stop. Just last week, he followed her there under claims she had noticed a strange path through it.

When Fen arrived, he would have sworn there was nothing noteworthy to be seen in the tangle of leaves and twigs and more leaves. But Pala, as he’s long learned, has a real knack for following even the most lightly-trodden of paths, and eventually her suspicions were vindicated when, fifteen minutes through hostile, itchy undergrowth later, they came upon a rusty bicycle under a lehua tree, the red stamens scattered across its frame and one spoke duct-taped to the wheel.

The sun began to set too soon, and Pala left with dozens of new photographs in her phone gallery and a resolution to return.

He figures she must be intent on making good on that promise.

“Last night, I was searching for info about that bike." And sure enough. "Y'know, it wasn't easy, I think I went through a couple hundred forum pages before I found it. There are so many weirdos on bike enthusiast forums, I swear. But hey! I found it! Our bike is a Trektec model that was popular four years ago. So, then, I dug through the Havaiki News archives from that year, to look for stories about weird disappearances—”

Fen frowns. “How late were you up last night?” he mutters, already slipping his notebook into his backpack for the trip he knows is to come.

“Four A.M.-like?”

“Four A.—”

“Anyway, you have to hear what I found! There was this case, a few years ago. Some guy went missing on Noni Road on their morning cycle, and they didn't find him, ever. And there's photos of him and his bike. They were the same as the one we saw, the duct tape and all! He’s called Eli Jackson. I can show you.”

“You…you found…the owner's name?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying! I mean, I think it's him. It adds up!”

“What? That's more than just a lead. That's like, the whole mystery solved!” With one hand, he picks out a set of clothes from his wardrobe, then yanks down the towel draped over the top of it. “You need to become a detective or something.”

He can hear the self-satisfaction in the next words. “You can do anything with the internet and ten hours.”

“And your attention span,” says Fen, carrying his phone out the door and down the short hallway, while he tosses and catches his stack of clothes in his left arm. “But what will we do now? You figured it out.”

“Yeah, but, we still haven't figured out what happened.” 

“Ooh...I see where this is going. We're going back to check it again, then?” Fen flicks on the bathroom light. “I have a bit of homework left over from last night, but I can make it—"

“Eh, Fen-Fen!” A muffled shout from the living room cuts him off. “You going out again ah? Don't forget your breakfast, okay? And bring your water bottle along!”

He groans and lowers the phone. “Okay, Ma!” Back on the phone. “Urgh, sorry, my Ma was saying something. So, the bus stop, at noon?"

“Just what I am thinking. I'll see you!” Her answer is instantaneous. At once, the thrill of the quest blazes through him, melting his brief annoyance away. He smiles as she ends the call with a beep.