Siberia
(After finding a crucial wheel problem and after a mad and dangerous overnight travel on Trans-Siberian Railway...)
I lost no time in getting a taxi to the old bike shop. But
there were no rims for mountain bikes. They were not
prepared to give me a wheel from a new bike. Seeing how
distraught I was (not that being upset made any difference),
the moustached manager sat me down in a chair.
“Look, have some tea.”
(Irkutsk . . .?)
I sat morosely there, deep in thought, for what must have
been thirty minutes, when the ‘big boss’ (the shop owner I
guessed), turned up.
“We’ll take the back wheel off this guy’s bike and put it on
yours. 400 roubles, OK?”
There was no real question about it being OK. If they did
not do the repairs there and then I would be simply unable to
make a start.
(from "Against the Wind" - Poolbeg Press)
