Grun Valencia Isaac, The Purpose

THE PURPOSE

Written By Isaac Grun Valencia

The early morning sun was rising. The air felt refrigerated, and its sound brought peace to her mind. Though it was late enough for bright light, it was early enough for Alexa to wake up, she prepared for a training day, she called her friends to remind them to be ready for training.

She got ready while having breakfast and then she left her house immediately. That day, she decided to take the fast way to the hills, so she took the cemetery path which is a very hard trail full of rocks. Finally, she got to the top of the hill, a giant mountain where you could observe the whole valley, there she had to wait for her friends Katrina and Kate.

It was 7 am, Alexa was in the hill thinking on how she could accomplish her dreams, reaching WESS (World Enduro Super Series), that is her main goal in life, she wanted to conquer it. Not because of fame or because of the money, but because she felt free while practicing enduro, it was as if that sport was made for her, she desired to at least be able to participate in one of those big races, but not for necessarily winning it. She was waiting for her group of friends so they could go and train and improve their techniques, they all wanted to get better. Ten minutes went by, and Alexa finally heard Katrina’s and Kate’s engine roar, they were coming extremely fast, and they arrived at the top of the hill.

“Hi, girls.” Said, Alexa. “Heyy, Alexa, ready to go training,” Katrina asked. “Yup, what about you two,” Alexa answered. “Of course.” Replied Kate.

“ Yeah, but first will have to wait for three friends we just crossed, who said they were getting their tank fueled up, and then they’ll come here, for us to go to the pines at Pavas.” Said Katrina

“Wow that’s pretty awesome, can I know who those people are?” Asked Alexa with a lot of anxiousness.

“No,” said Kate briefly. “Let it be a surprise.” Added Katrina.

The three girls began their training at the hill while waiting for the other three guys who were supposed to go riding with them. The first training was to do an eight around two trees. The second training was doing a pivot turn, which consisted of lifting the bikes front tire, balancing the body to keep the tire looking at the sky, and then turning around, this is a fundamental exercise as it helps with braking, accelerating, clutch control and body position. As soon as they finished this exercise, three other engines began to roar, Alexa didn’t expect to see what she was about to see, the first one to show up was Dakota Ordoñez; one of the fastest riders ever, then Rebecca Walker; the youngest-ever winner of the Vikings track prize, and finally, the most tenacious rider ever, who won every race; there is to win, the almighty, Graham Robert Stewart.

“Oh god, I can’t believe it’s him.” Said Alexa with a lot of emotion.

“Well you better believe it, Because were riding with them right now,” replied Katrina

“Okay girls, are you ready to ride!” shouted Graham.

At that moment, Alexa felt her life was done; they all began riding, descending the hill extremely fast, but not as quickly as the three pros were doing it. They started their journey to the pines, and it was a long way that took more than 15 kilometers, it was exhausting as you got to take into consideration the parts of the trail that the hills were very steep. Arriving at the pines, they climbed a vast antenna to eat, which had a 360-degree view of the whole pines and all of the mountain around. After eating, Graham proposed to do some demanding exercise that would improve the technique; at the very beginning, it was no big deal. However, the workouts started to feel harder and harder, and so on, until the precise moment where

Alexa could do them anymore as they were doing insane exercises, Alexa noticed that the pro riders level was way much higher than hers and her friends, she was very frustrated she wanted to leave and cry. She felt she had nothing to do there anymore. Two hours went by, and the pro riders left the place, Alexa, Katrina, and Kate began discussing their riding level.

“How come were they able to do that kind of stuff,” said Alexa, frustrated.

“I have no idea; it’s like if they had some special powers.” Replied Kate.

“I know we gotta train very hard. Let’s meet tomorrow at 8 o’clock at the death cannon.” Add Katrina “there we can test our abilities and capacities.”

“fine let’s go.” Alexa and kate said.

After the conversations, all the friends went back to their houses. Alexa couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened that day, and she was desperately waiting for the following day. She went to sleep with a big smile on her face, convinced that she could improve.

The next morning, Alexa woke up fast, she got breakfast quickly, she prepared all her things for riding fast; such as filling her gas tank, checking her oil and refrigerant levels, checking her breaks and her tire pressure. As soon as she was ready, she took her way to the entrance of the death canyon, where she was going to meet with her friends.

“Hopefully they’re already there, I don’t wanna wait,” said Alexa.

For her luck, they were waiting for her already. The three of them were very anxious, but to enter the death canyon they first needed to cross a 20-meter long bridge that was 18 feet above the ground, that was a challenge, because it was very tight, Alexa was the first to pass through the bridge without a problem, then when her friends were crossing it, she had a bad

feeling that one of the ropes of the bridge was breaking, but she thought it was only her imagination. Fortunately, they all crossed the bridge safe and sound.

The training began with the same pivot turn, they did the day before, they were supposed to climb a hill with a 4 feet long jump in the middle, Kate said it was a great idea to do the same exercises the pros thought them, and so they did all of them without exceptions and frustrations. It was one of the most robust and best training days; all of them were satisfied with how everything had turned out that day.

At 2 pm during that same day, Alexa had an appointment, so she decided to leave, but she needed to cross a bridge again all over the canyon; which was 18 feet high; and the canyon was full of rocks at the bottom, where falling from the bridge would be deadly. Katrina and Kate crossed; first, they were waiting for her at the other side of the bridge, Alexa noticed another rope that was damaged, and she began to cross the bridge she felt nervous and thought that she was going down, her friends were encouraging her but halfway through, the bridge broke, and Alexa fell into the rocks. She perforates her left lung, it was a real disaster Katrina and Kate hurried to take Alexa to the clinic. But there was no other way out of the canyon, Katrina was hopeless, but Kate saw one way out, but an expert was needed to do what she imagined; So, Kate said she would take the risk to save her friend, so she put Alexa on the back of the motorcycle and began riding towards an enormous jump that led to a lake that was beside the local clinic, just before hitting the jump, Kate was already in fifth gear and ready to be launched, ¡bum! Silence covered the whole atmosphere Kate jump, while jumping she did a double backflip with Alexa holding her, on the back of the motorcycle, Katrina was breathless.

Kate managed to land the jump on the lake, where

paramedics helped them to get out, they checked on Alexa, and they managed to cover the wound and stop her from bleeding, she was very injured, she had to be taken to a special clinic. A week later Alexa woke up, she was alone in the clinic room, little did she know about what had happened to her, as she had lost her memory at the same moment she fell down. She saw her chest that was full of bandages, she called a nurse, and the nurse explained everything that was going on, which made Alexa feel very sad, she was devastated, she thought that she was never as good as she was before and that she was gonna be unable to accomplish her dreams.

Two months went by, Alexa was barely riding, she only rode alone, she didn’t want anyone to know how bad she was riding. The day had come, WESS had begun, all of Alexa friends were waiting for her at the beginning of the race, at the starting line, no one believed she could make it, but they only hoped for Alexa to be there and watch them. However, there were no sights of Alexa, and the race began, everyone thought all hopes were over for Alexa; except for her; she was racing very fast. Eight hours passed by and the race was almost over the four last curves, Katrina had led all of the race, but undercover, Alexa was following her steps, getting closer with each turn, on the previous straight Alexa and Katrina were head to head on an epic battle for the win, they both crossed the checkered flag guess who the winner was, it was a historic tie for Alexa Splinter and Speedy Katrina. Everyone wondered who was the secret person that tied with Katrina, only one person knew who she was.

“you are riding fast, Alexa.” Said Katrina.

“Not as fast as you, my friend.” Answered Alexa with tears of joy on both of her eyes.