More from Hillary Frank
I've Got News
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From: Hillary Frank
A newly married guy finds out his wife is pregnant while he’s at sea and just a few years later, to his surprise, becomes a stay-at-home dad.
Nap Boot Camp
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An exasperated mom decides that her daughter WILL nap in her crib by the end of the week.
The Emperor's New Onesie
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A woman spends a month at home with her naked two-year-old daughter, trying to figure out why she won't wear clothes.
Would've Been the Mean Mommy
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A woman becomes a mom at the precise moment that her own mother decides to stop being a mother.
Nurse, Get the Handcuffs
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A mother unexpectedly breaks down and apologizes to her 34-year-old daughter for not being able to breastfeed her.
Endangered Sea Turtle, Yum
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A vegetarian of 22 years decides that the way to fix her son’s umbilical hernia is to start eating meat.
Kittens Can Do it, So Why Can't We?
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A mom who finds breastfeeding stressful discovers that a machine helps her feel closer to her son.
Don't Make Me Be Your Miracle
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After having her first child, a woman experiences heart failure and is told she has less than a 50 percent chance of surviving another pregnancy. Through a surrogate, she ...
Is Class Over Yet?
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From: Hillary Frank
A woman leaves her dream job to stay home with her baby, and then, out of boredom, starts sewing and unwittingly creates a new full-time job for herself.
When the Poop is No Longer a Gift
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From: Hillary Frank
A newborn turns blue, is rushed to the NICU, and his parents deal with going home while the baby remains in the hospital, hooked up to machines.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
Lucy, a 28-year-old with cystic fibrosis, meets the "Bike Girl," who has the same disease, in an Internet chat room. They are both, against the advice of friends and doctors, trying to get pregnant. They quickly become friends but can never meet in person, because the Bike Girl carries a bacteria in her lungs that is toxic to anyone with cystic fibrosis. This piece is an experiment in combining fact and fiction. The interview tape is all from a real interview; the narration is semi-fictional.
Broadcast History
First aired on PRI's This American Life 12/14/07.
Transcript
tape--this is the very first speed i do (makes sound)
Lucy didn?t have many friends growing up.
tape?this is the final speed i do (makes sound)
While other kids were running around, playing on their lawns, she was inside getting her chest pounded on to clear mucus out of her lungs. She has Cystic Fibrosis.
[SFX coughing]
Now Lucy is 28. She lives in a tiny box of a house on the corner of two alleys in Philadelphia. Every day while she?s going through her morning routine, she hears this at the intersection outside her window:
[SFX bike bell]
The girl who rides the powder blue bike looks like Pippi Longstocking. She?s got red braids, freckles, sometimes even striped socks. It?s a strange look for a grown woman, but somehow she pulls it off. Each time she passes, Lucy runs to the window. She wants to call out to the girl. She wants to grab her by the wrist and bring her insi...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Piece: 9:25
+ End music: 1:01
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liquid Spear Waltz | Michael Andrews | Donnie Darko. | Sanctuary UK | 2005 | 03:46 |
| Rosie Darko | Michael Andrews | Donnie Darko. | Sanctuary UJ | 2005 | 00:55 |
| Boy Moves the Sun | Michael Andrews | Me and You and Everyone We Know. | Everloving | 2005 | 01:50 |
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James Reiss
Posted on February 12, 2008 at 01:57 PM | Permalink
Review of Lucy and the Bike Girl
Fiction and fact meet uncannily in this piece, a full minute shorter than described. Not enough of this kind of fantasy reportage has hit public radio. Producer Hillary Frank's hauntingly beautiful interview has what it takes to be a "This American Life" segment.
For one, it features Lucy sans surname, a married 28-year old woman (though she's referred to as a "girl" in the description) and a cystic fibrosis sufferer who lives in a "tiny box of a house on the corner of two alleys in Philadelphia." Like a character out of a fairy tale, Lucy contacts or else invents -- it's never totally clear -- a friend, an alter ego who also has CF. Considering her long red braid, freckles and striped socks, Lucy's friend "rides a powder-blue bike and looks like Pippi Longstocking." With unflagging pace, accompanied by intervals of poignant, spacey electronic music, a believable story unfolds in which Lucy and her "Bike Girl" friend meet, in an Internet chat room for people with CF, to discuss getting pregnant, having babies.
You don't have to be a fan of the recent flick, "Juno," to understand Lucy's urge to have a child. Neither do you need to have an overactive imagination to appreciate the way appearance and reality come together here.
This piece illuminates the dim reaches of CF, with differently timed pounds on Lucy's mucus-clogged chest that are as acoustically vivid as her discussions of the CF bacteria, B cepacia, are shocking. Lucy lets us know about her tiny box of a world, which opens out onto bleak alleyways.
I don't think I've ever heard the sounds of a bicycle bell used as a segue to a phantasmagoria -- a series of great radio moments.