Unravelling

Chapter 39 - Warmth

I was wrong. It isn't fun. At all.

We are currently on a narrow path that leads right through the middle of a rather dense forest. Trees and bushes line the path on both sides and it is barely wide enough to accommodate a normal-sized person. To make it even more of a challenge, it has been steadily going uphill for the past ten minutes or so.

I think Alex is doing this on purpose. Whether to punish for me for something or to push me to my breaking point, I don't know. But nothing else makes sense.

Because who in their right mind would put themselves through something like this voluntarily?

Not surprisingly, my bike is pretty useless in such terrain. That became clear the moment my brother decided to venture off the main track which up until then had made me feel pretty confident about my choice of transportation. I had been able to keep up with Alex' pace and I inwardly congratulated myself on my genius idea.

Then he unexpectedly veered to the right and started to jog along a rather unofficial looking dirt track that is covered by dead leaves and fir needles. And I am using the term "jog" rather loosely here. In fact, calling it running would probably be more fitting. Within only a minute on the tiny trail I had lost sight of him while I struggled to push my bike along.

Riding it in this terrain is out of the question. I would get caught in the tree branches that are reaching out into the path within the first couple of yards, so I got off my bike instantly and started to walk instead, all the while cursing my brother in my head.

As it quickly turned out, pushing the bike isn't an easy feat, either. The path is so narrow that I can barely fit on it with a bike next to me. Not to mention the treacherous roots sticking out from the ground, hidden by piles of dead leaves, that I constantly stumble over or run the front tire of my bicycle into.

Seeing as I didn't get enough sleep last night and I am forced to do an activity that I despise, I decided to do the one thing that I thought suitable for the situation: I stopped moving and started to scream bloody murder. Not even two minutes later, Alex re-appeared, a worried look on his face. When he realised that I was still in one piece and was just airing my frustration, that annoying little smirk stole itself onto his face again, making me even more furious. I angrily pushed my bike towards him and threw my hands up in the air, making it clear that I was done with this.

In typical Alex fashion, he took my tantrum in his stride and just calmly looked down at me with a kind of pitiful expression.

"I did warn you not to take your bike, didn't I?" he had the nerve to say to me.

In that moment, I think I would have clawed his eyes out had I only been able to reach up that far. Instead, I told him that I refused to move even one step further along this path.

That was ten minutes ago.

I am now starring at Alex' wide back while I try my best to keep up with his long strides as he easily traipses along the dirt track, my mountain bike hooked over his right shoulder as if he were carrying a bag. He is not running anymore, although I suspect that he could do that despite the added weight of the bicycle, but he is apparently trying to accommodate me and my snail speed.

"How much further?" I whine.

It is the first thing I am saying to him since he grabbed my bike and ordered me in no uncertain terms to follow him. There have been a million things on the tip of my tongue that wanted to come out of my mouth but I know that most of the stuff I would have loved to say would have gotten me in big trouble with my brother. No matter the circumstances, he does not take too well to us kids using bad language. Let alone me calling him names. And that was exactly what I was about to do. It took a lot of self-control to suppress that urge.