Writing at Grub Street

Writing exercise @ Boston's Grub Street workshop:

1) You must use a "blue bike"

2) You must include the quote "If you do it again, I’ll cut your xxxxx off."

3) One character must be Hannah Sheets, an olympian.

4) You have 15 minutes to come up with a story.

The Story

Hannah Sheets didn’t want to be recognized for anyone in the street after such a disappointing performance in the Olympics. She was riding an old blue corroded bike, not like her $12,000 Carbon Limited Edition provided by the National Team in Beijing. Not like the $13,200 T1 Titanium Carrera used in the NYC Triathlon. It was a dirty bargain that she bought in Craigslist for fifty bucks. That day, she definitely wanted to be just one more.

She was trying to park the bike against a fence, probably private property. A cranky 75-year-old man stepped out of his house and saw her locking the bike onto the fence.

—If you do it again, I’ll cut your tires off! And then your guts! I don’t mind if you’re a lady, a kindergarten kid or even the President’s daughter! Damn cyclists...

A passer-by looked at her, then the bike, and then he kept on walking. She looked around. Just a month before people would ask her for an autograph. A woman with a few kids walked in front of her without paying attention to her. Not even the passing cyclists. Hannah wasn’t recognized; after all, that's what she wanted.

She unlocked the bike, and began walking with her bike, slowly, looking into everybody’s eyes.