‘Try the throttle,’ said Garovel. ‘Under your right hand. The brake is there, too.’
The bike surged forward, faster than Hector expected. He pulled on the brake, and the back tire came up. He fell out of the seat. The bike skidded slowly into him on its side.
Garovel floated over to him. ‘Well. I guess the paint job wasn’t important.’
The plan was to spend the entire day learning, of course. Garovel had allowed him to skip school, even, which gave Hector some idea of how important the reaper considered this trip to be. And as expected, the going was quite slow. He first practiced low-speed turns. Garovel advised him that for this type of motorcycle, turning at higher speeds would require countersteering, but to even reach those higher speeds, he had to be able to shift gears in a passable manner, which was perhaps the hardest part.
Shifting gears was an actual skill that he had to develop. It meant closing the throttle, holding the clutch, moving the lever with his left foot into the correct position, then easing off the clutch and throttling to pick up speed. Hector often released the clutch too quickly and ended up stalling the engine, but after a while, he started to get the hang of it.
Before attempting higher speeds, however, they decided to take a break. Hector had to fetch more fuel, anyway, and not being confident enough to actually ride to a gas station meant walking all the way there, purchasing a pair of canisters, filling them up, and overpaying the bearded clerk so that he didn’t think too hard about what Hector wanted it for. He also grabbed a bite to eat and took the opportunity to meditate for a little while.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Surprised he'd need to overpay a clerk for a canister or two of gas to ease suspicion. Do they not have lawn equipment in this world, or are the child labor laws really strict about mowing the grass?
ReplyDeleteNah. They're just suspicious of any young person buying highly flammable liquids in the middle of a school day. That, and they card like a motherfucker in Atreya.
DeleteNot to mention that even if the can capacity is equivalent to 1 US gallon each, that's a heck of a lot of gas for a lawn mower :D
ReplyDelete-Andrul
Hello again. Always a pleasure.
DeleteFrost, do you know how to ride a motorcycle or was this more research by way of Google?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't an automatic transmission car be a WHOLE lot easier to learn in one day. Especially for someone who has never driven any vehicle before?
ReplyDeleteway to set him up for failure Garovel
A car is a hell of a lot more dangerous to bystanders. If Hector loses control and plows into a van full of kids, you don't want him driving something heavy enough to smash it. It's okay if his inexperience gets HIM turned into pasta sauce, but normal people are a no-no.
ReplyDeleteI bet it was google...
ReplyDelete