As I a moment ago, was heading home from the gym my bike chained jumped like it does on regular intervals. “No big deal” I thought and flipped the bike over to fix it.

An old man smelling of cigarettes was suddenly standing very close. He asked me if needed some help with the bike – so far so good. I said “No, thank you, I got this” and he literally shoved me out of the way with his superior body mass. I was completely shocked – I still am, I never experienced anything so outrageously rude and filled of presumptions.

He started fiddling with the chain and started pulling the pedals the wrong way – I told him this. “That would be the break”, I said when he reached a sudden stop. He did not listen to that either, instead he pushed even more forcefully. Throughout the situation I begged him to “please, listen to me”, he did not. The moment in which he frustrated by his own incompetence took a break from the assault on my bike, I managed to sneak my much slimmer arms in toward the chain and in two seconds I get it back on the wheel.

I gave him a sarcastic smile without any warmth and thanked him for his efforts. He looked at me defiantly apparently surprised at my lack of genuin gratitude. I turned my head away. 

It makes me so furious that a stranger felt entitled to such a liberty despite my objections. The presumption that I was not competent enough to do it myself – despite me directly expressing that I got everything under control, and the expectation that I would simply be so grateful and obliging at this aid. This a minor incident, but how can people justify such violation of private property and space? 

Would I have been in a less “peopled” area I would have been very, very frightened.