A Solstice Story
by Jeff
Della Penna
In the beginning, the sun pedaled straight across the sky, each and every day, from east to west, never, ever varying the route. True as the most perfect wheel, the sun never deviated from that course and circled the earth on the same fine line each and every lap.
But after years and years of constant service, the sun's trusty bicycle was in dire need of repair. So, each night the sun would try to repair the bicycle and each morning the sun would rise a little later and a little later. And rising later the sun would take a shorter route across the sky, further to the south, so as to finish sooner, and thus be able to resume work on the bicycle. Each night the work would become more and more involved and each morning the sun would rise later and later.
Without the full warmth of the sun, the mountains began to grow cold, and rain turned to snow, and all the people began to panic and worry for the sun and they called to the sun, "Don't leave us!" But, the sun was busy trying to repair the bicycle and find those parts that were needed, and each day the sun rose later and later and took a route that was further and further to the south.
Finally, on a day so short it hardly started at all, a bicycle mechanic came forward and rose to the south to meet the sun and repaired the bicycle as it needed. The mechanic worked throughout the long night, and in the morning the sun rose again late, but not as late as the morning before.
Now the sun was out of shape, and so each morning the sun rose a little earlier and a little earlier and stayed in the sky a little longer and a little longer and moved slowly back up to the brightest line in the sky. And so it is that each summer the sun burns across the sky brightly and warms the earth and all those who welcome it. And in the fall the sun begins to drop off in search of the mechanic and finally finds the mechanic on the day now known as the Winter Solstice.
From that first Winter
Solstice, riders who love the warmth of the sun and the light that it brings,
have rode out into the night on the eve of the solstice with lights on their
bikes and offerings of spare parts and tools. And on the morning of the solstice
true believers bring gifts and salutations to their local bicycle shop in honor
of the mechanic who fixes the bicycle of the sun, and sends the sun back into
the sky each winter.
© Jeff Della Penna
Dirt
Rag, February 1996
Jeff is a lost author who's been found.
other stories by J Della Penna