When I bought my bike back in September I was still a fledgling in kana. It just took a lot longer to read signs than it does now, and perhaps if I had been quicker I would have deciphered and remembered the sign behind the counter which had three words for employees to go by: スマイル (sumairu- smile), スピヂヂ (supidi- speedy) and something else that was covered by another piece of paper (presumably along the same lines). I'd been putting it off thinking that a junky chain and rough gear changes was easy enough to live with that I could avoid the repair and waiting for hours while they fixed it. But it turns out, "speedy" was their middle name.
The man was, in fact, fairly smiley, super speedy, and probably a lot of the third thing, too. I stood watching him work, very grateful for the extra service he put into cleaning my chain and adjusting it, adding air to the tires, tweaking the breaks, straightening the headlight. At some point another man in the shop offered a chair and I realized that perhaps I was being awkward and making my bike hero feel less speedy by standing there. I had enjoyed watching him work but deferred to the other's suggestion.
A few minutes later, a practically new bike and a belabored attempt to explain to me that my insurance covered it for two years; there was no need to pay. I rode off into a light spring shower, a budding beginning of biking days to come.
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