Looking For Stolen Bikes, Episode Three: The Oracle Speaks

(Continued from Episode Two: Our seekers have been sent across the river to the portal of the great tunnel in search of the red bicycle. We resume where we left them at the end of Episode Two, the entry to the underworld.)

His eyes met mine for an instant of question and piercing appraisal before going blank with disconnection.  His look said "nothing to do with me," beneath the thick jacket he wore over his head as a kind of helmet or hood. He looked like Obi Wan Kenobi without his staff and an old Carhartt jacket instead of a robe. 

He kept coming toward us but tacked off to the side to avoid direct intersection. He meant to go around us rather than through us.

The incline from the tunnel to the street was not steep, but neither was it easy. It was littered with the debris of storms and the detritus of apathy. His jacket was off his head now, and I could see an abrasion on his scalp, likely from hitting it on the low ceiling of the tunnel.

He was gray and stooped, with hair that sprouted like uncut grass on his scalp and the sides of his head. He looked strong still and had a confident stride, not much older than I, if older at all.  He kept us in view in his peripheral vision as he climbed up to street grade and took the circuitous route toward the convenience store.

"Mind if I ask you a question?" I asked.

He stopped, looked right through me, and answered, "Nope. What can I do for you?"

He carried himself with a calm humility and alertness. Clearly not a predator, but more like a deer, he moved along the wall of the Quik Trip. But there was something else too, an air of poison, like a brightly colored tree frog, a color that says mess with me at your peril. I could see he was a long time survivor of the streets.

He carried some of the filth that goes with living in a storm tunnel, but he could have passed for a working man on a construction crew. I could see lesions on his skin in addition to the deep scrape on the top of his head. This was not someone who spent time in doctor's offices or dermatology appointments. He had, however, a mouthful of teeth, unlike many older homeless I meet, and a wry smile. OK he seemed to say, what's this all about? 

"We're looking for a couple of stolen bikes. One's my wife's bike and we're trying to get it back. We wondered if maybe you've seen it down there." I pointed toward the tunnel.

"It's a red mountain bike with a white fork," I added.

"What brand?" he asked.

"Gary Fisher."

"Seems like I have seen a bike like that. Is it a double suspension?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I think I've seen it down there, but I can't say when exactly. People come and go all the time. Some are regulars, you know. But some just pass through. Leave stuff like bikes down there all the time."

He kept looking around me, never directly at me.

"They put stuff in these cavities," he said. That was his word, "cavities." It sounded odd to me, and I pictured holes in the walls, like decay in dentition. "There are these smaller caves, kind of like storage areas, in case they come back or need to hide something. Gotta be careful about other peoples' stuff tho."

"I could go take a look if you want," he said. "It's not too far to the first cavity. Guys leave stuff there all the time. I might have seen it there."

"I'd appreciate it if you would look. I'll give you twenty dollars if you find the bike and bring it back out," I said.

He perked up a little at that, but not so much that it made that much of a difference. He would do this money or not.

The three of us watched him walk back down the spillway into the tunnel.

"You think he'll come back?" asked Sean.

"I'll give him half an hour," said Aaron.

"I think the money might make it worth coming back," I said.

We milled around the parking lot as a County Sheriff cruiser checked us out -- three guys in a tight group, one looking like CIA operative, another like an ad for Patagonia outdoor wear, and a third looking like he should be grading papers.

I waved and the sheriff nodded, apparently deciding we were harmless enough.

The sun was warm, early summer warm. I could feel the change of season coming. I wondered about the people living down there in the tunnel and what they would do when the weather went from hot and dry of Sonoran First Summer to anvil-headed giants of Second Summer and the monsoons that would surely scour that tunnel of anything not welded in place. What was it like to live in darkness under the Quik Trip, the traffic of River Road, and the commerce of Sam's Club?

Absolute darkness, concrete walls and floor, one way up and another down, people coming through your space at any hour for any reason, carrying what they carried to survive and to move. Movement is life. Bikes help you move. Bikes were gold, dragon's gold, worth hiding away, deep in the the lair.

The Oracle emerged as promised but with no bike.

"It wasn't there," he said. "But if you give me your phone number, I can call you if I see it. I can set it aside in one of them cavities. He took it deeper into the tunnel; that tunnel goes almost a mile, maybe more than a mile. There are parts I don't even know, caves and cavities so deep you think you're never going to get out."

The dragon was going to keep all his gold this time. His lair was too deep and we were not ready to penetrate the dark sufficiently to meet him.

Sometimes the dragon wins and the Oracle can only take you so far. 

"No, I don't think so. But thanks anyway."

"You know... I could leave it in the bushes over there.  That way, if you come by to check, you might find it. Nobody would look in there."

"If I come by this way, I might do that," I said. "We'll have to keep looking too."

"Yes, that's right. You have to keep looking. You never know when you might see that bike or the other one. You said there were two. Well I might see the other one too. You never know."

His eyes told me more than his words. It was up to us, but he might cross our path and play some role if the stars lined up. He was willing if we were.

He had his own business to attend to and we had ours.

He offered his hand, and, again, I had to refuse.

"You know. The coronavirus," I said.

He nodded. Another "Whatever."

"Well good luck," he said.

"You too," I answered.

We're all just looking for some space to live our lives and few things to make that life easier and more enjoyable.

The three of us returned to Zappo, drove back across the running river, the exit of the big tunnel, and the bridge, said our good byes and went our separate ways: home, food, and work, still hoping to regain what had been taken, what had been lost.

The search goes on.

Looking for the Stolen Bikes, Episode Two: The Tunnel People

(Continued from Episode One, in which I found myself out of luck and out of quarantine on the south bank of the Rillito River after an encounter with some homeless men. I was told one of the stolen bikes might be found in a tunnel across the river. One of them pointed me north, and I am looking at where we might have to go.)

Across the Rillito River, running clean and cold with snow melt from the mountains north of Tucson, a pair of large drainage tunnels framed a group of men lounging in the desert sun of late winter. Most had shirts off. A few smoked, sitting on the floor of the opening to the tunnel. Theirs was time, time to waste, to wonder, to watch riders roll by, recreating on expensive bikes, bikes worth more than they might earn in a month or two or three.

Must be nice, they might think, to wear tight shorts and colorful jerseys and glide along on a machine that is so light and smooth it almost does the work for you, or has a motor and does do the work for you. So close, but so far. 

Homelessness can make people desperate. These men did not look desperate, but discouraged or demoralized. Baggy pants hung below hips over boxers with waistbands up to abdomens. They were young mostly, the surplus labor force in a holding pattern, outsiders keeping each other company.

At least that's what I told myself as we planned what to do next.

Aaron arrived in Zippy, the '97 Nissan 200 SX that had seen better days. It was missing the rear bumper, had a bungee cord holding the trunk lid closed, and dents from various episodes of bad luck, hard knocks, sharp edges, moving objects, maybe an asteroid or two. It had some antiquated surfer-dude bumper stickers, like "Life's short. Go surfing!" and climbing stickers "Knot now. I'm going climbing."

Zippy had been my car for a while, then it was handed down to Sean, then to Aaron. With each step down the ladder of ownership, it had grown more oxidized, faded, wrinkled, decrepit, and loved. It was a doddering old dog, drooling its way from destination to destination, loyal to the end. We keep things, cars and bikes, rather than upgrade, usually. I guess you could call that a character defect, or grasping pathology, but it was the way we did things, the way we looked at things, had to do with the role things played in making our lives better. People need some things to define themselves, to use as tools and beauty and fun.  

The cars in our family have names like Zippy, Zappo (Sapo, or "toad" in Spanish), Soobie, DeRanger, and others, but we are not particularly a car-crazed group. The vehicles all have around 200,000 miles on them and look worse for the wear. My truck, for example, has been totaled three times, but that's another story.

Suffice it to say, Aaron's car had character. He parked it next to Soobie and Zappo. Now we were three, each arriving in his own vehicle, an embarrassment of riches. All for the cause of finding our lost sheep, the missing bikes. 

Aaron stood incongruously tall from the driver's seat. At six-three, he didn't seem the fit for a mini coupe. He fit better in the trucks he drove on the open road, the big eighteen wheelers he piloted back and forth across the country.

"What's the plan?" he asked, eyes behind black aviators shaded by his trademark black cap and shaved head. "I've got the pepper spray if we need it."

"It's not here," I said, keeping six feet of social distance because of the coronavirus. Even sons are not exempt from quarantine protocols. "We have to go across the river to the Quik Trip. There's an opening to a big storm tunnel there. A guy said that's where the bike is. We'll take Zappo. Oh, and keep your distance... no physical confrontation, and take it easy, keep it low-key, mellow."

So we piled into Zappo for the short drive up to the Quik Trip. As described, there were dumpsters behind the store and next to the opening of a large tunnel. We had driven almost a mile from the mouth of the tunnel, where it emptied into the Rillito. This was a long tunnel.

Walking from the activity of the convenience store past the dumpsters, we left the world of commerce, busyness, and light and gazed into a stooped-over world of cast-offs, makeshift shelters, and darkness. I was hoping that whoever was there would be near the opening. They were not. What was there, were shopping carts, dumpster treasures like old chairs, wood pallets, blankets, and random junk. I swear I saw a flat-screen TV, but that has to be more my faulty memory that actuality.

A smell of rot and piss emanated from the dank, stagnant air inside the opening. If ever there were a vector for contagion, this had to be it.

"I'm not going in there," said Sean.

"Me neither," said Aaron.

I read a sign scrawled on a large sheet of cardboard: "Do not enter this tunnel without a light. It's fucking DARK in here, and we will not save you or come looking for you or care about your screams. Bring a fucking flashlight!"

Fair enough I thought. Don't go in without light.

I peered in as far as I could see as my eyes adjusted, and I could make out a shelter of sorts of tarps and cardboard. It looked like shelters I have seen in slums in Central and South America. It showed resourcefulness in the face of lack. Here too was testimony to the harsh life assigned to those who don't fit, can't fit, or don't want to fit into the role of wage earning consumers. Like the virus, this disease was spreading, if my experience this morning was any indicator.

There were tracks in the sand, bike tracks, and shopping cart tracks. It was clear from the tracks that many people passed by here, that the tunnel was home to several, maybe a dozen, or two, or more, people. I had heard of the homeless camps along the river, that they were growing and that there were more of them, but I did not know people were living in storm drains, tunnels that ran with fury and flood when the rain fell hard enough. This was a harsh lesson about poverty and despair, which I saw here in abundance.

But there were no bikes to be seen. If the bike was here, it was further down the tunnel than I was willing to go. It was clear to me that we would not recover the bike today, or maybe ever.

I retreated to the railing above the opening to the tunnel and considered options. I could come back with a flashlight or headlamp. I could just wait and see if the bike and rider came out.

As I sat with these options, a figure began to emerge from the darkness and entered the light at the source of the tunnel. He paused to let his eyes adjust after turning off his flashlight. He looked at home in the dark, out of his element in the bright light of traffic, of consuming, of high-speed hustle.

He blinked and looked right at me.

What Happened When I Went Looking For A Stolen Bike

The message came in while I was reading online student drafts, seated at the table on my porch. It was spring in Tucson, and snow-melt was running in the Rillito. Sun shone. Gold finches, cardinals, Gila woodpeckers, and Gambel's quail chirped and squawked and sang. The fountain gurgled its happy little melody.

Over this halcyon moment hung a pall of quarantine from COVID 19, the novel coronavirus. We teachers and other non-essential workers were "sheltering in place" to keep the virus from infecting so many that the healthcare system would be overwhelmed. That fact stuck in my joints, made me feel tight, confined, resistant to any movement.

The message overrode the quiet moment with the urgency of a distress call. Ricky I. was following someone riding one of our stolen bikes. He wanted to contact me and didn't know how. I switched from reading student papers to fight/flight/chase mode with all the adrenaline that comes with that. I punched my phone number along with "I'm here." into the social media post. Immediately my phone rang.

"I saw your bike. I know it from the photos you sent out. It's a positive ID. Definitely the bike. The guy riding it is way too big for it too. It's clearly not his bike," Ricky said. "He took it down to a homeless camp in the wash by Tucson Mall, Stone Avenue, near the bus transit center."  

"Thanks," I said. "I'll head over."

"You want me to wait here?"

"No, I'll take care of it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

I had no idea what I would do, but grabbed a phone, a camera, and my folding knife. I got out of my stay-at-home shorts and put on some jeans and a tough looking t-shirt. I didn't know what I was getting into.

I called Sean and Aaron, my sons, and we all agreed to meet up at the transit center and head over to the camp.

Sean brought a big u-lock and a key to lock the bike if we found it. Aaron brought a can of pepper spray in case things got nasty. I had my GoreTex hiking shoes and grungy baseball cap.

Sean and I arrived first and walked over to the railing above the camp. I could see the makeshift shelters and some movement below between the tarps and the tents.

"Hey," I yelled. "You have my stolen bike and I want it back. Bring it out or I'm calling the cops." I held up my phone. "It was seen here a little while ago. We know you have it."

A young, tough-looking guy in a wife-beater stepped into view. I could see tattoos and well-defined muscles. He was carrying a glass pipe of some kind. I guessed he had just taken a hit of something.

"Come on down," Tough Guy said, somewhat threatening, "and fucking look. We don't have your bike. And I didn't steal your fucking bike."

He stood there below me, in the brush, defiant in the sun, a young man used to confrontation, ready for anything, pipe in hand.

Another young guy joined the first, then a third. It looked like there were quite a few, and things were getting a little tense.

This was a standoff.

"I'm not coming down," I said. "I just want the bike."

I decided to dial it back a bit.

"I didn't say you stole it. And if I did, I apologize. But we just want the bike. It's a red mountain bike with a white fork."

"We don't have it. That guy left. He took the bike with him."

The tone changed and became more of a negotiation, an exchange of information.

"It's my wife's bike. I want it back."

"It's not here."

As we talked the second guy was approaching and climbing the bank of the river toward us. He had a closely shaved head and tattoos. He was built low and tight, like a boxer. He did not seem threatening though, just on his way somewhere.

I noticed others leaving the camp also. Women, men, older and younger. The camp had more people in it than I thought possible given the size. They were dressed for work, did not have the tough or druggy or gang-banger look of the other young guys. There was more going on here than I thought.

"Your bike is across the river in the tunnel by the Quik Trip," Boxer Guy said as he approached. He was giving me intel., trying to help out.

"It's behind the dumpsters in a tunnel. That's where you'll find the guy who took your bike."

Through all of this Sean had been watching, holding his phone, ready to shoot video if necessary.

Tough Guy had turned and gone back to the shelter of the camp. Boxer Guy offered his hand for a handshake, but I declined saying "It's this virus thing." He nodded with a look that said "whatever," and rode away on his BMX  bike.

Sean and I headed back to the cars to follow our tip, the insider info, and where it pointed: Quik Trip. Across the river. Behind the dumpsters. Into the tunnel.

What we would find there was more than we would have ever guessed.

(To be continued... )

Social Distancing -- Day Six

My thoughts have oscillated between denial, dread, and wonder at the changes wrought by the pandemic. Beneath those thoughts, when all clears for just a moment, is the awareness that this virus might kill me or others I know. Following that thought is the corollary of how to live the days I have if they are only a few. That sobering realization is more than I stand, so I quickly change channels to something more palatable. I have not yet really made the mental transition to being in quarantine. I still roll out the habits of distraction -- going out to eat, dawdling at coffee shop, working out, driving to get groceries. This helps time pass, but I know I need to look this thing in the face and act accordingly. So I self-isolate, aware that I am not alone in the project. The fact of trying to change the behavior of an entire country's worth of people sits heavily with me. The enormity of social behavioral shift is not unlike that of trying to do u-turn with an oil tanker. They don't just turn on a dime. Neither do people. Yet, I and they are doing it, sort of. We'll see what the numbers say... Two weeks from now -- once the real casualties begin to add up -- the ones who are most cavalier about distancing will be out enforcing the practice with the vehemence of their fists. We'll see.We'll see whose turn it is when the virus comes knocking.

Beneath the Shadow of a Pandemic

We had planned this trip months before the virus became the central feature of our lives. It was a chance to connect with family seldom seen. As the trip date approached, fears of the epidemic simmered on the edges of our attention, but we opted to risk a visit to Los Angeles, to make the most of a spring break. 

Early one morning, we walked along the Seal Beach Pier as light rain fell. It was March, the first month of the exponential rise in cases of Covid19, the novel coronavirus, and the epidemic was there with us, in our talk, the way we kept our hands from the railing, the way we kept distance from other walkers, avoiding in particular those with a cough or hang-dog look of sickness. 

Rain had washed debris down from inland hills, and white plastic bags hovered below the surface of the water like jelly fish, like ghosts rising from the inky depths. A sign warned us not to eat fish caught from the pier because of contamination. Huge cargo ships squatted on the horizon waiting their turn to load or to drop their stacks of containers to be loaded again onto trains and shipped to the hungry consumers. 

We knew that over there, in the city, worry had reared its head, pushing people to grasp and hoard. Screens ran the real time numbers of increasing cases. We cited the numbers to each other, chapter and verse, puzzling at them for the meaning, trying to glean some insight or direction with no success. The human tribe was on the move. Shelves were empty, and lines were long as people hoarded goods for the coming quarantine. Air carried an electricity of fear born not knowing. A pall moved over the city, a shadow, of the bird of death, mortality, and chaos. Too many people. Too few cures. 

News was a barrage of announcements, each more inconceivable than the last: stock market imploding, mass sports events cancelled, schools suspended, travel restricted, space suddenly a precious commodity. The world had pivoted into a new and frightening dimension. And we were here, in one of the epicenters. New cases every newscast. Numbers, graphs, talking heads trying to find a way to name this new beast surrounded us like the rain. We were stuck for the time being with nowhere to run or hide. 

So we walked and took pictures and tried to see the beauty of the waves, the grace of a surfer gliding down the face of a weak breaker as the rain came down. What comfort we might find came from the company we kept, the gift of sharing a moment here strolling along the rain swept boards of the pier. The rhythm of the waves, the call of the hungry birds. 

Below us, fish swam unaware of the sickness spreading above them, the sickness that passed from gathering together, of being social animals. Up here, the hurts and wants of a life in progress rose to the surface where they manifested in tears or laughter.  This was a moment to reflect and to imagine what might be, how a past might be resolved or repeated. We each carried a past that colored our views of the future. No one was neutral in this heightened moment of opportunity shake loose and move. Some found comedy where others saw only tragedy. This was a reminder, a test of mettle, of what we have made of ourselves and each other. How we might move forward from here formed the question we strove to answer, to imagine.

I worried that the excesses of greed had left us unprepared for the coming need for common concern. The loaves and fishes would not be passed from hand to hand, but instead held close for fear of not enough. We would see. We would see. I hoped we might learn. I was as caught up the flow as anyone, and fate would do with me what it would. I could only see what was here in front of me, my vision blocked by a future too opaque for me to imagine. I had to think, or try to think, and to listen, and move, one foot in front of the other. It was time to break out of the shell of habit and to respond to this new thing, this new way of being and doing, and to compose a narrative big enough to embrace the possibilities it opened up.

We could see this as a calamity or a chance to coalesce as a society. We might find some strength in leaning toward a common good. This is a time needing massive cultural, social, and political shifts if we are to grow and survive as a species. The coronavirus might just be a chance to wake up to the power we gain from caring for each other.  

Nobody There to Tell the Story

In the end, it was sad, beyond sad. You gave it all you had. It just didn't result in anything. You saw past what people felt safe with and they didn't want to hear about it. The tidal wave was coming and they just didn't care enough to move, save themselves, get out of the way. The priests and chiefs felt threatened by you and took away your post, your title, and threw you into prison, maybe even tortured or killed you for your trouble, for your honesty. It's a high price, this looking at things a bit too closely. You can live with all of that, but the one thing you can't abide is that no one was there to tell the story. Oh, there were stories raining down in a torrent, but they were all safe, unchallenging things to entertain people, rather than wake them up. You tried a bit of that yourself, to no avail. As you let go of this realm, you see that it's just the way things are, that you need to move on, to let it all go. You just wish that someone would see, would tell the story of what happened here.