The Beast
We are all born gifted in different ways. Some get great athletic ability while some can't walk a mile without tripping over their feet. Some have great beauty while others have bodies only a mother could love. I fit in the latter category.
My eyes are spaced too wide for my face, my hair is the color of dirty dishwater and about as bouncy as an over ripe tomato. I did get the tall gene and topped out at an impressive five feet, eleven inches but my weight not only matched it but roared ahead into the sunset. I stopped looking at the scales before I turned fifteen. On the plus side I received a plus sized intelligence to go along with the plus sized body. You might imagine that I also got boobs of a size related to my shape and bone structure but it seems that the Maker of All Things decided to stop making at that point. In school I was affectionately called, The Beast.
Dating was never an option although I did try to ask a couple of my sized guys out only to be rejected. Seems that even un-dateable guys have unrealistic standards. This left plenty of time for study and to think about the future. By the time I was in my early 20s I had started my first business and by 30 I had made my first million. At least I had that.
The Internet was a great set of curtains for me to hide behind. Who cares what an on-line business owner looks like. Who even needs to see them in a universe filled with avatars and AI generated images. Behind that curtain I could be anyone and I found a meager substitute for a social life in the virtual world. It filled a void but still left me wanting. I was a forty plus, plus sized virgin and destined to stay that way. I was even thinking of getting a cat; maybe a lot of cats. Then it happened.
I was driving along a back road on the way to my seaside vacation cottage when I saw what looked like a human leg sticking out of the ditch. I quickly pulled over and walked back to find a smashed up bicycle laying atop what looked to be a dead cyclist. He looked to be somewhere in his 50s and he was bleeding from a nasty cut on his forehead as well as other cuts and scrapes on his arms and legs. If he was bleeding, he was still alive. Heaving myself into the ditch I stooped down to check his pulse. At my touch he moved and began to moan.
"Stay still," I told him, "I'm going to call 911."
I could not get a signal standing in the ditch so I walked back towards my car. Still nothing.
"Don't move." I called back to him, "Help is coming."
I was lying but I needed him to stay still until I could really reach help. Before I could walk to another location I saw him on his hands and knees crawling out of the ditch. I turned and ran (or did what, for me, passes as running) back to him.
"You really need to stay still." I said. "You might have a broken neck or worse."
He just looked at me and said, "I think my bike is broken."
"I think your brain is broken," I snapped back, "and if you are not going to stay still, at least sit down so that I can stop some of the bleeding."
That must of made some sense because he quietly sat down on the roadside with his feet in the ditch while I went back to my car to get a first aid kit. Fortunately, his cuts and scrapes were not as bad as they first appeared and he did not appear to have any broken bones. However, he talked nonsense and and kept asking about his bike even after he was told that it was a total wreck. It was obvious that he had a concussion and needed medical help. I still did not have a cell signal and no one seemed to be interested in coming down this stretch of road. If he was going to get medical attention, it looked like I was going to have to take him. However, he refused to get into my car until I loaded his bike into the rear hatch.
As we rode to the hospital, I asked him what happened. All he could remember was that he was riding along and suddenly everything went dark until he felt me grab his wrist. He did not remember where he was coming from or where he was going. He did not know his own name or anything else. This made social chit-chat somewhat limited so we rode the rest of the way in silence. At the hospital they first took my information and then checked him in as a John Doe while I went out to the car to see if his bike held any clues.
His bike was set up for some sort of trip with saddle bags on the front and back but aside from some clothes, a few tools, a sleeping bag and a tent, there was nothing to tell anything other than he was some sort of bicycle traveler. He did not have a wallet or any other identification either on his person or in his possessions.