Love Story, Part II

I'm sure you've all been waiting with great anticipation *smirk*, so here it is -- Part 2.

As we pulled off next to the spillway, I said to her, “It’s really tall, are you sure?” And before I could finish, Raven had opened the throttle on her Sportster. The pipes were screaming, the rear tire squirting dirt, and it’s headlight bouncing up and down on the side of the spillway as it made it’s way to the top.

I was totally overcome by what I had just seen, and my adrenaline was flowing like never before. I, too, opened up the throttle – with my megs screaming, I had to stand up on the pegs and lean forward to keep the front wheel down as the BSA clawed at the dirt. As I topped the spillway, I locked my brakes and slid up next to the HD with my BSA. With both engines now silent in the cool night, we both looked down at the bottom from whence we had come. “ WOW that was some climb, huh, Raven?”. “Sure was” she replied. Then we looked across the moonlit lake, and back at the bikes. I noticed that I had stopped at just the point where the end of our handlebars was touching. As the moonlight glowed over the curve of the bars, it made a shadow of a heart on the ground – was that a sign? In the quiet of the moment with the moon shining on Raven’s face, she said – “Let’s ride.”

We mounted up and sped into the small town of Grapevine. In town we were stopped by a traffic light, and the sound of our powerful bikes was spoiling the peace of the little town. Just then I saw a red light come on as a local sheriff did a u-turn. Raven turned her head so fast to look behind us that her long black hair flew across her shoulder. One quick look, then she looked at me with those big brown eyes full of excitement, she said, “Let’s show him what we can do.” As the rear tire of the Sportster started to smoke, I took one last look at the quickly-approaching police car and got all caught up in the moment. That’s what will happen when riding with a woman like Raven.

The next thing I knew, the BSA was on its rear wheel. As we both accelerated to the speed of 100, we leaned forward to get out of the wind. We headed down Highway 121 for Hurst. It seemed that the old Plymouth the sheriff was driving could not catch us. We turned off 121 and sped down Glade Road, which was very dark and twisty. It was all this young man could do to keep up with the HD. As we came to a T in the road, and in all the excitement and confusion I went right and Raven went left. Thank goodness the law followed me and not her, and I was able to lose him. From past experience, I did not ride the BSA to my house, but parked it at a friend’s house about a mile from home and walked home. As I walked alone in the night air, I looked at my watch. It was midnight and the start of a new day. I wondered if I would ever see Raven again. To this day, every time I hear the sound of a HD, I spin my head around and hope to see a beautiful 1963 black Sportster. I sure did love that night way back then, and all the memories the BSA carried me through. I sure miss it. Oh, by the way, there were as usual two cop cars sitting in the dark, just waiting for me and the BSA. As I climbed over the backyard fence, and started in the back door, I stopped, looked around, and took in a deep breath of night air. I smiled and said, “Life’s good”.

P.S. My wife of 35 years just shook me and said, “Wake up and go take your meds.”