View From a Ridge(back) – Jenny 23

[For back story go here: Story so far at 27 July 2020 and subsequent Jenny episodes especially this one.]

[Click on in-text links for relevant back story]

Jenny walked carefully back to the group of other cyclists who were admiring the view across the valley and beyond. 

"You  OK?" asked Maddie.

"Sure, sure," said Jenny, sitting down gingerly and rubbing her aching muscles. "That hasn't happened in a while."

Having ascended the final slope in what must have been record time, Jenny had at first felt exhilarated and elated and then sped on to her own personal rapid downhill movement to feeling exhausted and sick, resulting in her losing her energy giving breakfast in the hedge opposite the road. She felt a bit embarrassed, but then gradually realised it wasn’t that bad. The others had had similar experiences and she had been among the first to reach the summit so there was a reward for the pain. And in any case the view was wonderful to look at between retches.

"Mind you," she added to Maddie and the other women there, "I've not done anything like this in a while either."

There were a few nods of agreement and sympathy among the group. They were generally spaced out at they watched the landscape, drank water, chomped energy bars and caught their breath. A few were closer and talking in low voices. Clearly better acquainted and friends thought Jenny. Everyone has their own safe area and for the time being that was almost all you had to consider.

Her spoken thoughts were picked up on by Claire, a tallish woman who had nearly matched her pedal for pedal to the top.

"You been looking after everything else?" she asked. "That's been it with me. You wouldn't think that being in lockdown and told not to go anywhere, see anyone or do anything would make you so busy, or tired, but there you go."

"It is a bit like that," said Jenny. "Only more so. My son got it, I had work issues and stuff. You use up so many emotional reserves when you get a chance to stop you just – stop."

Claire and a couple of others agreed, reflecting on how much more energy everything took now – from deciding where would be good to go and when to making sure you and everyone else had a mask that fitted and was clean. "No quick nipping out any more," said one.

"You should see the extremes I have to go to," said Claire. "I work in other people's houses so going from one to another is a complete nightmare. The amount of changing and cleaning and everything – just for a small leak."

"A what?" asked Jenny.

"I'm a plumber," said Claire. "It's been a weird time because we've still been able to respond to emergencies and stuff, but you have to take so much more care. Used to be straight in, do it, clean it, out of there."

Intrigued, Jenny fell into conversation with Claire about her work. Why she started it (father was in the trade) how it had developed into her own business and so on. There was a something about it that attracted Jenny, perhaps because it was something she just took for granted, perhaps because it was so different from her own world of figures and analysis.

The ride back down was, of course, way easier than the ride up. They took a different route and even though they weren't that far from home Jenny was able to distract herself from her physical tiredness by the beauty of what she was pedalling through. 

As the ride continued Jenny found the momentum of activity, the workout, the sense of doing something and affecting the world, or at least moving through it, was very satisfying. Maybe after all, what she needed in her life was something that meant she did something – that she saw an actual impact on the world rather than just counting it and trying to place order over it.

She dropped the bike back at Maddie's house and walked back to her own home. It was a five minute stroll and worthwhile just to get her legs set to normality again rather than constant circling.

By the time she'd got showered and changed she was already thinking about the next day and the challenge of the forthcoming week.

Izzy made her a cup of tea and found, again, the biscuits they hid from the kids.

"You know," said Jenny, "all this might be tough and tiring and everything but every now and then you kind of think about stuff that could happen."

"Sounds like you had a good ride," noted Izzy. "What would you like to happen next then?"

"I think I'd like to be a plumber," said Jenny.

Izzy dropped the biscuits.