"Yes. Except mine's powered by a gasoline-fueled engine instead of pedals. It's called a motorbike. It goes much faster than a push bike and requires almost no physical effort on the driver's part."
She turns and ambles down the slope to where the bike lies on its side. Without much ostensible effort, she rights it and wheels it out of the worst of the rutted mud—a fairly impressive feat of strength that doesn't quite seem to fit with her stature and body type. She then hops on, fires the ignition and drives the beast up the bank.
Once girl and bike are back on the shoulder tarmac, she over-revs exuberantly a few times, just for show, then turns the engine off, kicks the stand down and dismounts. "Voila," she announces, patting the driver's seat proudly. "This is my baby. We've been through a lot together."
Not waiting for comment, she lifts the seat cushion up, revealing a hidden compartment, and pulls out a standard road map of the US, Canada and Mexico. It's unfolded and stretched across the re-lowered seat for Jamie to look at.
"And this is the United States of America," she says, illustrating with her finger as she talks. "We're right here, on the border of the states of Iowa and Nebraska. It's an area known as the Mid-West. Very flat corn farming country mostly." She points way off the eastern edge of the map. "England is over there somewhere, three thousand miles across the Atlantic. I've been there a few times. Quite a nice place."
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"Yes. Except mine's powered by a gasoline-fueled engine instead of pedals. It's called a motorbike. It goes much faster than a push bike and requires almost no physical effort on the driver's part."
She turns and ambles down the slope to where the bike lies on its side. Without much ostensible effort, she rights it and wheels it out of the worst of the rutted mud—a fairly impressive feat of strength that doesn't quite seem to fit with her stature and body type. She then hops on, fires the ignition and drives the beast up the bank.
Once girl and bike are back on the shoulder tarmac, she over-revs exuberantly a few times, just for show, then turns the engine off, kicks the stand down and dismounts. "Voila," she announces, patting the driver's seat proudly. "This is my baby. We've been through a lot together."
Not waiting for comment, she lifts the seat cushion up, revealing a hidden compartment, and pulls out a standard road map of the US, Canada and Mexico. It's unfolded and stretched across the re-lowered seat for Jamie to look at.
"And this is the United States of America," she says, illustrating with her finger as she talks. "We're right here, on the border of the states of Iowa and Nebraska. It's an area known as the Mid-West. Very flat corn farming country mostly." She points way off the eastern edge of the map. "England is over there somewhere, three thousand miles across the Atlantic. I've been there a few times. Quite a nice place."