I hate cycling

Dad didn’t always have time to spend with Benjamin. So they decided to have a cycling day in the woods.

Meet Benjamin’s best friend – Batu. Find out why Benjamin hates cycling. Hear Ben’s dad urging him on. Finally get to the top of the hill. Enjoy the bit that makes dad yell ‘Yahooooooooooooooooo’

This is a lovely little story. We love what Ben learns in the end.

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I hate cycling

A Tales of Time Story.

‘I hate cycling!’ Said Benjamin to Batu. Batu was Benjamin’s teddy bear and was sitting in Ben’s backpack with his head poking out. Batu loved cycling! He didn’t have to pedal.  He just sat behind his best friend and watched the trees going past. ‘Wish we could go a little faster though’, he thought.

This was supposed to be a great day out with Dad. Dad didn’t always have time to spend with Benjamin, so they had decided to have a cycling day in the woods. It was supposed to be fun.

 They had only been cycling for five minutes and Ben already knew it was not fun.
‘Look at my bike!’ exclaimed Ben, ‘its all covered in mud and wet, horrible leaves!’
‘Never mind, said Dad as he carried on up the hill.
This was no ordinary hill. It didn’t just go up. It went up and up and up; and just when you got thought you had got to the top, it went up some more.

Benjamin was not happy. Neither was Batu. They were going so slowly, and Ben’s legs felt like they might burst.

‘Just one more corner’ he could hear his dad calling from somewhere so far away, he couldn’t even see him.

Benjamin had had enough! ‘That’s it!’ he said as he got off the bike and kicked it as hard as he could. It fell into a big brown puddle. ‘Grrrrrr’ he said. Ben crossed his arms, scrinched up his face and flumped down on the floor. ‘Humph’ he said ‘I hate cycling.’

‘Come on Benny Boy!’ called Dad. Benjamin pulled his ignoring face and ignored him.

‘It’s so beautiful up here Ben!’ Ben didn’t care about beautiful. Bicycles were not made for going up hill. Where is the fun in that? But Benjamin didn’t want to get lost. That would be even less fun. So, Ben slowly and grumpily climbed back onto his bike and pushed his legs round and round and round. But no matter how hard he tried he seemed not to be getting anywhere!  His face was ready to burst as he  pushed and pushed and ….. phew. Finally Ben had made it to the top of the hill. He let his legs dangle on the floor and he slumped over the handles.

‘Well done. Benny boy, I knew you could do it!’
‘Go away’ Ben mumbled still out of breath.
‘Now for the really fun bit!’ said Dad ‘Wahooooooooo’

‘Wahooo? Thought Ben. He lifted his head off the bike and forced his sleepy eyes open. ‘Dad?’ he said, Dad had disappeared. Ben pushed himself forward and could see that the path continued down the other side of the hill. Dad was half way down and was going so fast, he looked like a tiny mosquito.

He move a little closer to the top and ‘wahhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooo’ he yelled. ‘Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh His bike started going faster and faster. ‘I’m not even peddling!’ he yelled at Batu. He caught up with Dad and side by side they whizzed down the hill. It seemed to go on forever. Ben looked over at Dad. His face was all blown backwards, his hair was sticking up, he had mud on his nose and the silliest grin Ben had ever seen!
‘WEeeeeeeeeeeeeee’ he was saying as they flew round corners and over bumps that made them jump into the air.

‘Lets race!’ yelled Ben

‘What?’ asked dad who could only hear the wind rushing in his ears.

But Ben was peddling like crazy trying to overtake his dad.

‘Hey!.. ‘yelled dad, as he tried to catch up.

They were both pedaling as fast as they could. Dad was looking at Ben and Ben was looking at Dad when….

Suddenly everything seemed to go in slow-motion. ‘’What happened?’ asked Ben.

‘spshshsshshs’ they had both cycled into a huge puddle of thick black mud. They tried to pedal out of it. Pushing their legs round and round and  ‘oh-oh’ said Dad and Ben at the same time. ‘Aaaah’ they both lost balance and fell sideways in to the sloshy black mud. ‘eeeewwww’ ‘Spler’ Their faces were absolutely covered in thick mud.

They sat up, Ben, Dad and Batu were completely soaked. They just laughed and laughed and laughed. ‘haahahhhahhaha’

When they finally stopped laughing, they climbed out of the mud puddle Then they lay on the grass in the sun to dry off.

‘Here’ said dad as he handed Ben a chocolate.

‘Thanks Dad’ Ben had never known Dads could be this fun. There they were, a complete mess; scruffy hair, muddy face, soaking wet clothes and very happy smiles!
‘Can we come back soon? Said Ben.

‘Of course, Dad replied.

Dad looked at Batu and Batu looked at Dad. They both smiled.

‘SPLOSH! They both landed in the middle of a river!

The End.

©Tales of Time 2008