The quiet neighborhood glowed beneath the evening lights.<\/p>\n
The little girl couldn’t stop staring at the miniature motorcycle.<\/p>\n
Bright yellow paint.<\/p>\n
Shining chrome.<\/p>\n
Perfect in every way.<\/p>\n
She carefully climbed onto the seat.<\/p>\n
Holding the tiny handlebars.<\/p>\n
Smiling from ear to ear.<\/p>\n
The biker watched quietly.<\/p>\n
Proud.<\/p>\n
Happy.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
the little girl noticed something hanging from the handlebars.<\/p>\n
A small silver key.<\/p>\n
Attached to a leather keychain.<\/p>\n
She looked up.<\/p>\n
Confused.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Gunner, what’s this?”<\/p>\n
The biker smiled.<\/p>\n
Then slowly knelt beside her.<\/p>\n
“The bike isn’t finished yet.”<\/p>\n
The little girl blinked.<\/p>\n
“It isn’t?”<\/p>\n
The biker shook his head.<\/p>\n
“Nope.”<\/p>\n
He pointed toward a small chrome box mounted behind the seat.<\/p>\n
The girl carefully opened it.<\/p>\n
Inside\u2014<\/p>\n
was a folded note.<\/p>\n
And a photograph.<\/p>\n
The little girl unfolded the picture first.<\/p>\n
Her eyes widened.<\/p>\n
The photograph showed her late grandfather.<\/p>\n
Standing beside a full-sized yellow motorcycle.<\/p>\n
The exact same color.<\/p>\n
The exact same style.<\/p>\n
Tears instantly filled her mother’s eyes.<\/p>\n
The little girl looked up.<\/p>\n
Confused.<\/p>\n
“Grandpa’s bike?”<\/p>\n
The biker nodded.<\/p>\n
His voice soft.<\/p>\n
“He used to tell me all about you.”<\/p>\n
The driveway fell silent.<\/p>\n
The mother covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
Unable to speak.<\/p>\n
The little girl carefully unfolded the note.<\/p>\n
The handwriting was shaky.<\/p>\n
Old.<\/p>\n
But unmistakably written with love.<\/p>\n
The little girl read aloud.<\/p>\n
“For my favorite riding partner…”<\/em><\/p>\n Her voice trembled.<\/p>\n “If you’re reading this, it means Mr. Gunner finally finished our surprise.”<\/em><\/p>\n The mother burst into tears.<\/p>\n The little girl stared at the note.<\/p>\n Then at the motorcycle.<\/p>\n Then back at the photograph.<\/p>\n The biker smiled.<\/p>\n “Your grandpa asked me to build it before he passed away.”<\/p>\n The little girl’s eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n For a moment\u2014<\/p>\n she couldn’t speak.<\/p>\n Then she climbed off the motorcycle.<\/p>\n Walked straight to the biker.<\/p>\n And hugged him tightly.<\/p>\n The biker closed his eyes.<\/p>\n Holding her carefully.<\/p>\n As the porch lights glowed behind them\u2014<\/p>\n a promise made years earlier had finally been kept.<\/p>\n And a grandfather’s love had found its way home. \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The quiet neighborhood glowed beneath the evening lights. The little girl couldn’t stop staring at the miniature motorcycle. Bright yellow paint. Shining chrome. Perfect in every way. She carefully climbed onto the seat. Holding the tiny handlebars. Smiling from ear to ear. The biker watched quietly. Proud. Happy. Then\u2014 the little girl noticed something hanging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6678","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\/6678","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=6678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}