I recall the first time that my fresh knee puck touched that black asphalt. I remember how scared I got and how I grabbed a handful of brakes that day, followed by a headful of concrete. Where was I? Who were these people? I knew that I should know where I was and know these people, in theory. Sensibly, don’t we know the people that talk to us and seem to be friendly? Don’t we know the places we are and have come before? I knew I had a concussion. They didn’t seem to believe me. Sometimes we know things from our gut. Or sometimes we have to unlearn them.
Hell. How would I have even have gotten here if I didn’t know where I was? And they kept saying my name but I kept having to ask theirs. I soon woke up to the clamber of paramedics and people standing over me. And I felt like I was learning a few things for the first time. For one, my mother’s passing from a year back was reborn inside of me. I felt like crying. I felt like I just learned it. I felt ridiculous sharing this learning with a dozen strangers who weren’t strangers, around me so I masked it or tried.
These strangers were just there for a fellow rider who went down. I kept asking if her bike was okay. I felt bad as this new stranger and friend had shared her cherished possession with me.
I didn’t know these people. I only knew that I was scared right now.
Step forward a year. I am at the Bouche de la Mer of Senegal. Or trying to get there. “Where is N’Gazobil?” I ask some local people. “C’est ici.” You are here. Sometimes we are looking for something that is already there. Or sometimes we don’t even know what we are looking for so we can’t even gauge if we have reached there.
I stop to enjoy the many boats and wind of the sea. I get on my way to the next stop. I wander. Where is the highway? I go back north and then south again. I stop to ask the man who has witnessed my erratic tracks.
“Where is the highway?” He tells me that it is down the street. He tells me it is right at the corner of his Aunt’s house. He hops on the back of my motorcycle without a question and off we go.
We arrive there promptly and he asked me where I am going. I tell him Djifer. He says his other aunt lives there and that she would love to have me for dinner he is sure, that is if I don’t have plans or anything. He motions towards his phone. He picks it up as I observe him chatting with said Aunt. I don’t really understand how we became friends so quickly but here we are.