Alexander

His lips were moving but Alex couldn't comprehend what he was saying. Alex saw that he was handing him a small black book. There were words being said but, all at once Alex couldn't hear beyond the beeping of the EKG machine and the noise of the nursing staff busy at work. Alex's vision was clouding as the heat and moisture swelled beneath his eyelids. "Don't cry." Alex told himself. "You have to be a man now. You have to take care of your family." Alex saw his father's eyes shift to his mother and brighten. They dimmed. He died.

A rush of water splashed out of the gutter and crashed onto Alex as he pedaled. "What the hell! You could have merged over!" He shouted out into the rainy night, to a truck that was already long down the road; past hearing any of Alex's criticisms. Alex knew this.

"It's my own fault." He thought to himself. "I zoned out thinking about dad again. I should have noticed that truck coming, especially how long I've been riding."

Alex was riding his father's bicycle; a green and white Schwinn road bike. It had seen better days before his dad had ever bought it. Still, his father loved it. Alex had been riding it across the country for sixty four straight days, from St. Augustine to San Diego, in tribute to his father. A journey that his dad had always wanted to make himself. "The splash of water wasn't so bad anyway. Between the rain and the sweating it's not as though I was dry before." He thought.

Alex continued to pedal, his legs aching, until he came across a store awning. Ducking under the awning, he pulled his phone and a small black book out from a saddle bag on his father's bike. Alex opened the book. It was half filled with directions scribbled in his father's handwriting. There was a page torn from the middle of the book and Alex turned to the page just before it. Alex read the names of the cross streets and cross referenced his GPS. He gambled to ride throughout the night despite the storm and it paid off. "I'll finally be done with this waste of everyone's time." He thought. He just graduated from high school and knew that he had to get a job as fast as possible. He needed to take care of his family. He had objected to even going when his mother firmly said, "This was your father's dying wish. His dying wish! Besides, I already mailed the key. Your father's ashes can't be spread without it."

Thinking back to his mother's words Alex became angry that his father had been so selfish. Didn't his father realize that he needed to stay home and work? Alex put the phone and little black book back into the bag and continued to pedal and pedal and pedal.

Finally, he approached the pier where he was to pour his father's ashes out.

"One big push." Alex said breathily. He began to pedal faster. He could hear the creaking of the rims as he pushed harder. A spoke broke loose. Alex made it onto the pier. He slammed on his brakes skidding several feet toward the end of the pier. He dropped sideways, fell, and laughed.

"I used to fall this way all the time when dad taught me to ride." He thought. The sky began to brighten and the rain began to fade.

Alex picked himself and his father's bicycle up. He reached into one of his saddle bags and pulled out a bronze urn. There was a lock keeping the lid sealed tight and the key was supposed to be placed inside of a box and left on the pier for him. He walked towards the end of the pier and found a little ring box with a sign next to it. It read, "for Alexander and his dad." He was grateful that his uncle made it in time to leave the key.

Alex took the key out of the ring box and unlocked the urn. The sun was beginning to rise.

"It's nice that dad's ashes could be spread out during such a beautiful sunrise." Alex thought. He pulled back the latch connecting the lid to the vase of the urn and pulled off the lid. To his surprise, he saw a small plastic bag with two folded pieces of paper inside. Alex unfolded the smaller paper and was stunned. He was holding a bank receipt for $20,000 to an account in his name. Confused, Alex unfolded the second paper. He immediately recognized that it was the same one that was torn out of his father's book. He also recognized that it wasn't in his dad's handwriting but instead his mom's. Alex was confused for a moment and then quickly realized that it was because his dad couldn't write after the accident. Alex read the letter.

"Hello son. I'm so sorry I'm not there to say this to you in person. Congratulations and thank you. I had been preparing for that ride for many years. You made it happen. I was going to go once and then I cancelled when your mother and I found out that we were having you. I realized what was important then was that I work so you and your mother would be taken care of. The world, such as it is, required that I worked long days for a long time. I had to put aside my own ambitions and I'm sad to say it didn't give me much time to really be the father I wanted to be for you. I'm sorry son. I know that you are a lot like me though. So, I know you are wearing the weight of the world on your shoulders right now. That is admirable son but, stop it. When I was your age I had dreams to travel the world, be inspired by what I saw, and write stories that would inspire others. I see the same talent and drive in you son and now you're one great step ahead of where I ever was. I have been putting this money aside for me to take you to all the places I had hoped to go. Now it is yours to take yourself to wherever you want to go. Take my book and fill the rest of it and many more with your own adventures..."

Alex stopped reading as he got to the bottom of the page. He saw the last two lines were written roughly in his father's handwriting. He read them.

"This is the last thing dad said." Alex realized. A burst of pressure built up in his nose. His eyelids were flooded and tears began to run down his face. Alex poured his father's ashes into the ocean. He walked to the old Schwinn and returned the urn to the bag. He pulled out the black book, turning to the torn page. He took the two pieces of paper and flattened them against the book before closing it around them. He placed the book back into the bag and sat on his bike. Alex began to pedal as the sun rose. The last words from his father echoed in his heart.

"I love you. Alexander, be great!"