ON WHEELS

Paul was a twelve-year-old boy who lived in the countryside with his mother Catherine and his old brother Joe. Since the death of his father, who was the only one that had job, the family became poor. They hadn’t Christmas presents; they only bought what was necessary. But on Paul’s birthday, his mother found a proper job and then they could afford a bike to give to her son, his first bike.

Paul used to ride to the lake, with his mother, while his older brother was looking for a job to earn more money. Because they were in the countryside and there weren’t too many cars, they didn’t wear helmet. Catherine thought that if his son wasn’t allowed to ride alone, she didn’t have to worry about the helmet because she was always there to look after him. “You can’t ride your bike alone, do you hear me? Never. It’s dangerous if you don’t wear a helmet”, said to him.

But one day, Catherine fell ill and she couldn’t go to the supermarket, so they didn’t have anything to eat. Catherine said she would ask to a neighbour because Joe was out for the whole weekend, but there was only Mrs. Clark who was too old. So Paul decided to go to town to do the shopping without telling his mom. He knew his mother would shout at him, but he only wanted to demonstrate that he could help like his older brother. So he took his bike.

He decided to take the quicker way that was a new road, instead of going through the field, where he knew how to ride. He began to ride very quickly to arrive home early. Suddenly, a car appeared in front of him and crashed his bike. The driver, worried because he hadn’t seen the boy, called immediately an ambulance and then they took him to the hospital. Once there, they phoned Catherine when Paul was able to tell them where he lived.

“He will be fine soon. Luckily, he only broke his arm and had some injures, but anything else worrier”, the doctor told Catherine. “It could have been worse because he didn’t wear helmet, you must wear helmet when you ride”. Paul could drive again with his mother while Joe, at last, was working and, since then, they always wore helmets.