Riding Freedom

by David Chek Ling Ngo

Seeing how friends could go anywhere they wanted without having any problems or worries, like the BMX boys of ET, fascinated me as a boy. One afternoon, after a few falls, I succeeded in riding the Reilly gifted by grandfather. And this power was a turning point. Studying abroad in Dublin, I rode to school on Marlborough Rd through the leafy Herbert Park under a canopy of trees which turn colourful in autumn, riding with a chilly winter rain along the quiet flowing River Dodder. At college, I used a different route where there are rosy-brick houses of Georgian architecture, the well-manicured gardens of St Stephen's Green and some of the busiest junctions in the city, using for errands on weekends, hanging over the handle grocery or laundry bags while walking down the market street with the bike at one side. Today was my first bike ride in 25 years to get back my freedom.

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David Chek Ling Ngo lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he works as a professor at a Scottish university branch campus. His short stories, memoirs and poems have appeared in A Story In 100 Words, Friday Flash Fiction, Five Minutes, Shot Glass Journal, Cold Moon Journal, Failed Haiku, Drifting Sands Haibun, Tricycle (Haiku Challenge Winners for February 2022), One Sentence Poems, and Ribbons.