A long cold day and an even longer there after!
Standing in his long waxed riding coat and open face helmet, Dan stared into the shop window, his breath frosting the glass. Past the Xmas lights and tinsel, over the faded marketing blurb from last years motorcycle models, to just under the warm white glow of the spotlight at the back of the showroom. There she sat, staring back at him with those two shiny demonic looking eyes, her rear lifted upwards, almost inviting him in and leant over in such a way as to try and seduce Dan with her exposed pipes and filters. The wind was whistling around his legs and the snow building up to his ankles, he had been standing there so long. But Dan wasn’t feeling the cold, he was in the warm sun, winding open her throttle and leaning as far as he could to make the next bend.
Suddenly Dan was startled, as the window rattled at his nose and a faint growl of a voice was heard from the other side of the window. ‘Bugger off you old git, I just had these bloody windows cleaned!’ Dan woke from his dream and into reality, now he felt the cold. He turned to his own bike parked at the edge of the kerb, already under two inches of snow, he brushed it off the saddle and sat onto its cold vinyl surface. Pulling the coat under him and then around the front of his legs, he turned the key in the ignition and reached down to tickle the carbs and pull out the kick start. Standing on the pegs he leaps down onto the kick start and the twin roars into life. ‘Now that’s a bloody motorbike’ he says under his breath. With both feet firmly on the ground Dan opens the throttle gently so as not to lay the bike in the snow and gently pulls away from the kerb, once he was safely onto the left side of the road and into the snow free groove left by other vehicles, only then did he lift his feet and open the throttle some more.
He had a 50 mile journey to his mothers ahead of him, it was Xmas eve and he was off to visit his mother for Xmas day and her usual over indulgence with turkey and all the trimmings. Strapped to the back of his bike with a few old bits of string was a small present of gloves and woolly hat for his Mum, ‘Well old people always need something to keep them warm’ he thought.
It was now three in the afternoon and the light was quickly fading, now 40 miles into his journey, Dan was really feeling the frost nipping at his fingers and face, his thoughts were of his mothers warm cosy open fire and a mug of tea to thaw out his fingers and body, but he wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable hot aches and pains involved with defrosting his fingers. Just as he was imagining the warmth from the log fire firmly in his mind, suddenly he felt a sharp jolt from the side and was lit by a piercing light and the sound of an engine right next to his ear. The car had seem to come out of nowhere, the bike now on it’s side and Dans’ leg trapped beneath it all he could feel was a tugging at his shoulders. He looked up to see a women apologising, ‘I am so sorry it was the snow you see, I couldn’t see you for the snow on my windscreen and the de-frost isn’t working that well, and I was late so I needed to…’ ‘Hang On!’ said Dan, ‘Let go of my bloody coat’ he then proceeded to push the bike off his right leg with his left foot and attempted to climb to his feet.
As Dan new from experience it wasn’t worth releasing all the abuse he had stored up in his head and to fire it straight at her, would be totally lost anyway. A good move on his part, as it turned out, because once he had lifted his steamed up goggles from his face and his eyes had regained their focus, what stood before him stopped him from even uttering another word, just for his jaw to drop in amazement.
He felt a strange warmth as his eyes surveyed her from top to bottom, it was as if a strange golden glow surrounded her, her eyes a deep blue, kind eyes, not filled with rage at all as he would have expected. She seemed, somehow, to stand taller than himself, he was 6’2 after all, impossible he thought. She helped him up. He wasn’t feeling cold at all now, much to his surprise, ‘Must be the adrenalin, he decided or my hormones’. His legs suddenly collapsed and he fell backwards, the powder snow sending a cloud into the air as he hit the ground, he tried frantically, to scurry away backwards but was trapped by the front of the car and his bike. She wasn’t tall at all…..she was floating!
To be continued…………..
G. Eastwood
Comments