I heard them first. It sounded like kids having fun; you know, like kids in the playground, half yelling, half laughing. It made me smile, and I looked up expecting to see young kids, and there they were, adults trying to be daredevils and ride down the stepped wall.
The park facing from the Canadian Center for Architecture has this strange half building that mimics the Victorian Shaughnessy mansion across the street. It’s a place where people come to sit in the sun, or take selfies, or use the structure to practice extreme sports… well not too extreme.
Often, I would see guards from the CCA chase away the skateboarders who try to use it. At first, the guards would glower with their hands on their hips, and if that didn’t do it, they would go over and tell them to go somewhere else.
Now that I was watching, I could hear them more clearly. They were trash talking each other. It appears that the one on the wall was called Sarge, and the one watching was called Minou. She was betting him a coffee he couldn’t ride the wall and get off at the end without falling. He was laughing and saying she should up the bet and make it a coffee and donut.
As I watched, I saw Sarge easily make the first few steps; but land successively harder as the steps got bigger. The last step was a killer because there was a good 3-foot drop onto the sidewalk. He seemed to lose his nerve because he tried to turn before the end and bounce his bike onto the grass. I heard Minou giggle as Sarge lost his balance and land on the grass hard.
Normally the CCA guards would be there by now, glowering and telling these bikers to move on; maybe the guards were on a coffee break themselves.
“That cappuccino and maple glaze is going to taste so good…” I heard Minou yell as Sarge got up.
“Okay Minou, for another coffee and donut…. I bet you can’t do it” Sarge called back.
Right from the start, Minou seemed more stable and confident. She moved slowly and precisely over the first few steps, but I held my breath as I realized she was going to go right off the end and onto the sidewalk. Then she did the trick. She pulled up on the handlebars, getting the front tire off the ground; then almost like a unicycle, she went forward and off the end of the wall.
Her bike landed on its rear wheel first and then on its front, and she confidently continued along the sidewalk. But before she could make her victory lap, I heard a two-way radio squawk and then something garbled. I saw them look at each other and then speed off past me. Now I understood why the CCA guards hadn’t bothered them; they were bicycle cops.