Boy On a Bike

On  the scenic flat above the Lake I'm on a country road  by  open
fields.  Color  change  at a medium distance and a  flash  of  sun
suggest  the  wild Boquet with coarse brush and  trees  along  the
margin.  Approaching the top of a hill a figure on a bike suddenly
darts out from the side. I brake  and get out and there's a boy on
the grass at the margin.  I can't tell if I struck him or he  lost
balance avoiding my vehicle. I offer to help but he brushes me off
and picks up his bike which is OK.  He's in jeans,  a denim jacket
with the collar turned up and western boots. He rides off down the
road without a glance back and not a word.

In a few minutes I pass him and see his head is down and the  bike
rolls with a wobble. At the next village I find the police station
and  report  the incident to a uniformed cop in  a  campaign  hat, 
pleated jacket and riding boots.  We drive back in the police  car
and soon encounter the boy on the bike.  We call out to him.   His
head is down on  the  handlebars, and he's not pedaling,  his arms
and  legs  are still.  The bike keeps going as the road  is  on  a
moderate downhill grade. When the bike reaches the village, at the
first  level,  it crashes to the ground with the boy pinned  under
the frame lifeless.

As  a  young man on holiday with Max Brod at a town in  Bavaria  a
motor car strikes a boy on a tricycle delivery cart. Kafka records
the incident in his Travel Notes.  The boy is unhurt,  the cart is
seriously damaged, and a group of spectators quickly gather at the
site of the accident.  The general opinion is the driver is not at
fault as the boy came suddenly in his path out of  the side street
and there was not time for him to avoid striking the cart. The boy
is  in tears,  terrified as he will have some explaining to do  to
his boss for the ruined cart. The crowd grows blocking traffic and
the automobile is moved to the sidewalk while someone goes to  get
a cop.  He arrives in a colorful provincial uniform and  questions
the driver taking notes in a book.

Later in his Diary Kafka comments on this early fragment,  broadly
critical of the jejune realization and loose structure with  giant
holes in it big enough to fly an airship through.  Also  Almodovar
is  the object of unwelcome advances from the  Spanish  heartthrob
Enrico Banuel in his first movie.  Enrico tracks down  Almodovar's
boyfriend at a remote lighthouse,  lures him  to cliff's edge  and
pushes  him to his death.  At an antique government building  with
elaborate  Gaudi decorations he is interrogated by  Carbiniere  in
black Napoleonic hats and traditional outfits.

2/24/10 Barcelona SP