Chapter 24 - THE BLUE FRAME
The regulator returned what remained of Ethan’s blue bicycle after all litigation ended.
He was twenty-two.
Frame bent.
Paint scarred.
Wheel separated.
Evidence tags.
I asked:
“Do you want it?”
“No.”
“Any piece?”
He looked at the blue frame.
Then at me.
“The serial plate.”
We removed only after authorization.
He kept the small metal plate:
C-17-4421.
Not as a trophy.
At his first apartment, it sat in a drawer.
Years later he used it in a safety lecture.
He held it up.
“This number mattered because adults treated documentation like politics.”
Then he put it away.
May you like
The rest of the bicycle was recycled.
Metal becoming metal again.
