The biker stayed frozen for a moment, his hand still resting on the handlebars.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour dad fixed bikes?\u201d he asked again, quieter this time.<\/p>\n
The girl nodded. \u201cHe was the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something tightened in his chest.<\/p>\n
He looked away toward the diner lights, as if they might blur what he was feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was his name?\u201d he asked carefully.<\/p>\n
The little girl hesitated, then said it.<\/p>\n
The biker went still.<\/p>\n
The color drained from his face.<\/p>\n
Because he knew that name.<\/p>\n
Not from rumor.<\/p>\n
Not from memory.<\/p>\n
From a time when life was simple, and he still believed people could stay.<\/p>\n
He slowly knelt lower, voice barely steady.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did you say he went?\u201d<\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s smile faded a little.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom says he didn\u2019t leave on purpose,\u201d she whispered. \u201cShe says he just never came back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence settled between them.<\/p>\n
The biker looked at the repaired bike, then at his hands\u2014hands that suddenly didn\u2019t feel as strong as they used to.<\/p>\n
For the first time in years, the road didn\u2019t feel like freedom.<\/p>\n
It felt like distance.<\/p>\n
And sitting right in front of him was a reminder of everything he had once walked away from\u2026 whether he meant to or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The biker stayed frozen for a moment, his hand still resting on the handlebars. \u201cYour dad fixed bikes?\u201d he asked again, quieter this time. The girl nodded. \u201cHe was the best.\u201d Something tightened in his chest. He looked away toward the diner lights, as if they might blur what he was feeling. \u201cWhat was his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}