Sarah and Steve* are still alive … but I don't know why.
"OK, I give up, what is it?" I asked Steve.
I was looking at a chunk of aluminum cylinder about 4 inches long and 3 across. It was bisected about an inch and a half from one end by a steel cylinder that was broken off almost flush with the edges of the aluminum one.
It was a piece of debris that three days before was part of a really nice custom Sportster.
Look at it some more, he said, as we sat sweltering in the evening heat at the County Line Ice House. Maybe it was the heat; maybe it was the two Shiner Bocks I had just finished, but I was at a loss here. I could no more figure out what part of his bike this was than I could've calculated an orbital trajectory. A little background on Texas ice houses. They aren't air-conditioned. They have at least one, but more often two or more walls that consist mainly of garage doors, which are all open in an attempt to draw a breeze from outside. If you didn't know as you rode past, you might think it was an automotive repair place…unless you'd been in Texas awhile. Ceiling fans, jukebox, pool tables, and the beer is kept on ice. Not in a refrigerator. I've seen shuffleboard tables in an icehouse, but never a dartboard.
But I digress: just know that it was pretty warm in there. And although the part I held in my hand was instantly recognizable as being off a motorcycle (and it wasn't Harley specific) I couldn't figure out where it came from.
"I don't know Steve, I just can't pick it out."
"It's the bottom of my left fork leg. See that steel piece there is the front axle," he said. "The right side looks just like it; it's at home. "
No. I was dumbfounded.
I looked at Steve; both elbows skinned up, raspberry on his nose (not on the high part, on the lowest part of the dip kind of between his eyes). He was fine otherwise. Sarah was moving a little slower. Really stiff back, left elbow bandaged up. Couldn't put her bra on nor could she wear it when Steve put it on for her, she was so sore.
But they were alive, and nothing broken or missing.
"I am really glad to see both of you today." I have never said that to *anyone* and meant it more than I did to them.
"Heh, you think this is bad, you oughta see the rest of the bike," Steve said as he held up the now familiar lump of aluminum.
Turns out they were making a left hand turn and got rear-ended. Steve saw it coming, warned Sarah that the car wasn't stopping, and tried to squeeze the bike between the guy coming up behind and the oncoming traffic.
It didn't work.
Sarah bounced up on the hood of the car, hit the windshield and rode there a little ways down the street until the guy slammed on the brakes and slid her off onto the street.
He then turned his wheels and drove around her, leaving the scene, and leaving Sarah unconscious on the street.
They still haven't caught him.
Every time something happens to restore my faith in humanity something like this happens to disillusion me. Be careful out there gang.
Ken Matthews
*Names have been changed