The Letter ‘E’

After a day of traveling and waiting I had arrived. I swam around the playa on my bike with the dust goggles as my mask and a keffiyeh to help me breath. It was a blurry colourful chaotic world that I was a stranger to and not yet part of. As if scuba diving in the ocean, I admired all the colourful fishes and swam with respect and without touching. What a weird and wonderful world I had entered and I was only beginning to explore…

I was cycling towards the man with no plan, only ideas. I was toying with the idea of exploring the outer reaches of the city but in my head it seems too much effort with little reward. A girl cycling ahead of me slows her bike down alongside me.

“Where are you going?” she asks inquisitively with a thick dutch accent.

“I don’t know”, I respond.

She says she doesn’t know either and asks if we should go nowhere together. I say I would very much like that and the two of us cycle parallel to one another. She asks if we should go to the “Believe” sign and we chase the horizon until “Believe” towers over us.

We sit on the letter “E” sharing dates, nuts, water and stories until the dates are all gone. Gina and I hug and then part ways to other adventures. As she rides away, I’m instantly hit by childhood memories of riding around my neighbourhood on my bike alongside newly acquired friends from parks.

I miss those childhood adventures long lost. At what time do we lose that curiosity of adventure in the company of new friends? I vow that day to regain my curiosity and explore places I’ve never found before and meet people I’ve never seen…

by Jon Robson