Oliver Possum's Bicycle

By Chip Haynes

Friendship and a brand new bicycle ... what more could a possum ask for?
When Oliver Possum was just a young joey, he walked everywhere. Well, everywhere he could, which wasn't far. All of that changed when he got his first bicycle.
Now the whole world is his, as long as he was back by dark. And he made sure he was, mostly. Now h

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Little Horsemen
• Release date: Apr 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9781644507520

Chip Haynes

Chip Haynes is an artist, writer, cyclist, juggler living in Tampa, Florida. In 2009, New Society Publishers of British Columbia, Canada, published both "The Practical Cyclist, bicycling for real people" in 2009 and "Wearing Smaller Shoes, living light on the big blue marble" in 2010. Satya House Publications of Hardwick, Massachusetts published Chip's "Peak of the Devil, 100 questions (and answers) about peak oil" in 2010 as well. Two out of three won awards and picked up some cool endorsements. So there.Chip is currently dabbling in fiction and poetry when he's not pedaling in shorts and sandals.

Book preview

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Author’s Notes

Classroom Questions & Discussion:

Oliver Possum’s Bicycle

Copyright © 2023 Chip Haynes. All rights reserved.

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Cover by Niki Tantillo

Typesetting by Autumn Skye

Edited by 4 Horsemen Publications, Inc.

All rights to the work within are reserved to the author and publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 International Copyright Act, without prior written permission except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please contact either the Publisher or Author to gain permission.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022951347

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-750-6

Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-751-3

Audiobook ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-753-7

Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-752-0

For the Lovely JoAnn, my perfect girl.

Chapter 1

Just another joey.

Hello, Oliver Possum here. If we haven’t met, I’m sure we will. I’m the one in the brown cap. Yes, I ride a bicycle now, but I didn’t always. Not when I was young, and everyone called me joey. Did they call you joey? That was a long time ago, but I still remember so me of it.

What’s the first thing you remember? Think back to when you were younger. What do you recall? If I think about it, my earliest memory is of my father’s black bicycle and my brown cap. That is, I remember watching my father push his big black bicycle out of the house, to go wherever it was that he went. I never got to go with him then, but I did watch him go out and come back, always on his bicycle. He seemed to like that, and now that I have a bicycle of my own, I know why he liked that. It’s fun!

And that first brown cap? I remember that, too. I still wear one, but not the same one. I’ve outgrown a few brown caps over the years, but it seems as though I’ve always had one. Every time I went for the door, my mother would put a brown cap on my head. Be sure and wear your cap! she’d say. Yes, Mother. Wear my cap. And I always did—every time. Now, you might think that I’d take it off when she wasn’t looking, but I never did. I got used to it, and it fit, and I liked it, so I wore it. It got so that I’d make sure I had my brown cap on before she saw me leave. That made her smile. That’s what I remember.

I also remember being called joey a lot. That got odd. I thought Joey was my name. Hi, I’m Joey! Who are you? But then at home my mom and dad called me Oliver, so maybe I wasn’t Joey? Who was I? For a while there, I wasn’t sure what my name was. It got confusing when I met another young possum, a girl possum, and she said she was joey, too! Were we all named Joey? Was that everyone’s kid’s name? I thought so, but no. I was wrong. Too bad. That would have made it easy to remember everyone’s name!

She explained that we little possums were all called joeys, like those tall green things were called trees, and those hard things on the ground were called rocks. Joey wasn’t who we were; it was what we were. We were joeys! I nodded my head, and I smiled, and I told her I got it, but I didn’t get it. Not until later. And I never did know her real name. But I knew it wasn’t Joey! Or tree. Or rock.

Those are the first things I remember and the things I still remember. I can still see them if I close my eyes and think about them, but they are kind of fuzzy now. It was a long time ago. The other thing I can still remember is walking in the woods, even when I was young. I walked in the woods a lot. I still do when I’m not riding my bike. It’s a good thing to do. Remember that!

We lived in the woods, and I still do, so walking in the woods was all I could do until I got my bicycle. The woods were right there, and I was right there. Where else would I go? Into the woods! Out the door, down the stairs, and three steps later, I was in the woods. Now, at first, I didn’t go far into the woods. Mom would say, See the house! And I knew what she meant. She meant not to go so far into the woods that I couldn’t see the house and find my way back. That way, I never got lost in the woods. Well, not at first.

As I got a little older, I got a little bolder, and sometimes I’d see how far I could go and still see the house, even if I couldn’t see the house. Sure, that’s the house right over there. Isn’t it? Maybe not. Was I ever lost? Not if I could hear them calling my name. Oliver? Where are you? Ah, home is that way! I knew