The Pedal Pusher

Meet the actor/caregiver/gymnastics instructor whose carefree evening pastime involves delivering drugs by bike.

Illustrations by Sam Spina

During that odd time of year between winter and spring, when light rain and mild hail announce the changing of seasons, the afternoon sky is overcast and the streets are mostly empty in South Slope, Brooklyn, except for several people mounting delivery bicycles. Inside a homely bar, Joseph, a twenty-five-year-old Texas transplant, fidgets with bottles of liquor while simultaneously wiping the countertop.

Order a whiskey and Joseph will surely launch into detailed descriptions of the various rye, bourbon and malt he's stocking. Happy to entertain, you may soon learn Joseph is a caregiver, actor and entrepreneur, in addition to being a bartender. If he likes you, he may also reveal his other gig: spending nights atop his Bianchi race bicycle, darting around New York City delivering everything from psychotropics to painkillers; marijuana to mushrooms.

He made his connection through a chance encounter with a teenage neighbor who moved into his building and brought …