A Boy's First Ride

When my son was younger, he liked riding around the parking lot on my motorcycle. He was too short to sit on the back, so I would have him sit in front of me on the seat, feet dangling in the air as we would do a few circles before he would want to get off. I figured that he would want to jump on the back and head out on the road with me as soon as he could reach the pegs.

However, as time went on, he started to become disinterested in the motorcycle in general. I was disappointed but didn’t push the issue, only asking on occasion if he would like to go for a ride, to be met with, “No thank you Papa.”

Recently he had been having some difficulties in school. He has Autism, and was acting out quite a bit at school, so my wife and I decided to give him a day off to regroup.

While trying to think of things that would help him to relax, I had started to get a little anxious and turned my thoughts to things that calm me down. The continuous cloud cover that marks the winter (and spring and fall) of Oregon had begun to break allowing some sunlight through.

There seemed to be a single sunbeam glowing on my bike, catching my attention through the window. Not expecting a positive answer, I threw out the idea of a ride to my son.

“Sure.” I had to check again and ask him to repeat it. He was already getting up to get his coat. I grabbed the helmets out of the closet, got him bundled up and called my wife to ask if she would mind a visit from us.

We didn’t have any gloves for him, but the ride wasn’t going to be too long. I even ran him around the block just to make sure that he wasn’t going to change his mind. With cries of, “Woohoo!!” and, “Yay!!” coming from the backseat, I figured that we were a go.

The ride to Mommy’s work was a little cold, but short. When we pulled up, he didn’t even want to take off his helmet. When she saw her son with his helmet on and the smile on his face, my wife was very proud of him.

After a short visit, my son was ready to get back out on the road, so we headed back home. Although his hands did get a little cold (I really wasn’t as prepared for this as I thought I was) he said that he was ready to travel longer distances with me. He was even willing to go to Klamath Falls, “as soon as you get me some gloves.”