No Rebound

Chapter 2

Chapter 2‘Sorry, I had no idea it was there! Let me help you pick it up and give you my details.’

‘Can you turn that bloody noise down too?’ I shouted at her, pointing at her car as if my wagging finger alone would be enough to scare the music into abating.

‘Oh sorry, hang on’ and she turned into the car and hit the off button on the stereo.

She walked around the bike and grabbed the saddle as I grabbed the handlebars and she started to lift before I was ready, succeeding only in grazing the bike across the tarmac.

‘Hold it!’ I shouted angrily ‘It’s heavy, so on 3. 1...2...3’ and this time I lifted but she didn’t! Aaargghhh how bloody difficult could this be?

I was about to shove her out of the way and do it myself when I saw she was looking at me strangely.

‘Now?’ she said looking confused

‘Now’ I repeated and we lifted the bike together until it was upright and back on it’s stand again.

I took a very long look at the bike to assess the damage as she looked on, biting her nails and looking terrified. She looked so worried I actually started to feel a little sorry for her, especially as I had flown at her like some crazed dervish.

Amazingly there was very little damage thanks to the tank guards. A broken indicator and a couple of fairly superficial scratches to the tank, none of which was going to be tough to get fixed.

‘Listen, I don’t know how much your insurance excess is but it’ll probably be cheaper for you to just pay for the repairs and that way you won’t lose any no-claims bonus or get a premium increase next year.’

I turned to face her waiting for an answer but she just stood there looking at me expectantly.

‘So, which way do you want to do it?’ I prompted

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, looking at me strangely

‘As I said -- the damage is minor so it’ll probably be easier and cheaper for you just to pay for the repairs rather than involve the insurance.’

‘Oh ok. In that case please get a quote to get the work done and I’ll just pay for it, but I’ll let you have my insurance details anyway just in case you find some damage later on that you can’t see now.’

I stood there looking at her as she walked over to her car and started rummaging around in her handbag on the passenger seat. There was something strange about this woman but I couldn’t put my finger on it. She seemed to look at me with a weird intensity sometimes while being oddly aloof and distant at others.

She returned with a business card and was writing a mobile number on the back.

‘Sorry, I must have the insurance details at home. This is my business card, I work just over there’ and she waved her hand at the building opposite my own workplace ‘If you text me later I’ll get back to you with the details.’

‘Ok’ I sighed ‘I’ll call you later.’