Dark & Dear

I’m walking out side a supermarket. A few bikes are parked in bike stands along the wall.
Four teenage “hoodies” walk towards me from the other side of where the bikes are parked. They are chatting and laughing.
As the boys get to where the bikes are, one of them pushes a bike to the ground, and apparently by doing that, impresses his mates. They all laugh even more. As I arrive to the “fallen” bike I stop and wonder for a second. Then I turn around and kindly ask the boy if he would mind picking up that bike. As a bunch of insulted gangsters, the four boys stop and turn around. They are not laughing anymore, they just stare at me.
The guy who pushed the bike says: “Is it your bike mate, otherwise shut up!”.
I respond: “Yes it is! and I saw you pushing it, and I think that was a very very stupid thing to do!”… The boys all walk towards me… probably not to come and pick up the bike… “Alright then” he says and bends down and picks up the bike.
“Thank you very much” I said. The guy steps back to join their little “circle”. They look at each other, then at me, but nothing happens. A beat… then I say: “And please don’t do that again?” and I start looking for a key to unlock the bike.
The boys stand around for a few seconds, before they turn and head off… I stop searching for the key I know I don’t have. I Put the bike back in the stand where it was before so the owner can find it when he eventually comes out of the supermarket.
I quietly leave with my headphones full of Wilco with Tweedy singing:
“I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go for you,
I’ll fight, I’ll fight, I’ll fight for you….”