Sometimes I am not really sure how I got here, another two bit town, a hang over, and a cheap motel. It seems like so long ago when I was doing the whole family thing. You know the “American Dream” where you have a job, two cars in the drive, a mortgage, and a wife and family that you provide for. It all seemed to go bad quick, but more about that later. Time to push on, can’t let any grass grow around the bike. Just wouldn’t seem right staying any where too long, not anymore anyways.
The last town I was through wasn’t too friendly so I had to head out of there sooner than planned. You see every so often I try and slow down for a few weeks, take a little job turning wrenches, flipping eggs, bailing hay, whatever it takes to earn enough to keep me on the road a few more miles, take care of Beth (my old panhead) and put a little meat back on my bones. I think I had been there about a week. I found a little job changing oil at one of those old small town full service gas stations. Nights were spent sleeping on an army cot (sure do have a lot of time in one of those) in the back of the shop. Every day the same ole, same ole spend a little time working on cars, pump a little gas, and then at night shut it down with a can or two of Milwaukee’s finest.
Last Friday was a little different though. Jack (service station owner) and I headed down to the local watering hole to take in a little scenery while enjoying a couple of drinks. Not too much though, I really don’t care to get sloppy drunk. You never know when you might need all of your senses about you. That night turned out to be one of those times. It seems it is getting hard to have a drink in peace without some wanna be badass making some stupid comment or something. It seems you are never free from the idiots that surround you and this one idiot decided he was going to come up and start telling me about how he doesn’t like my kind around there. Now to this day I am still not sure what they always mean by my kind, I mean is it a vet they are talking about? How about an old country boy? Could it just mean they don’t like those of us that chose to live life free and in the wind? I wonder how they know what kind I am when usually they are just meeting me. Hell I will never know but here was another one and well I ignored him like I usually try to do. It doesn’t matter though how much you ignore them they usually are too stupid to know they are going to get hurt. This one actually decided to go on about his business or at least I thought he had until I went outside later that night and found that the tires on my bike were slashed. Now there is not a lot you can do to make me lose my temper. I have lived my whole life learning to deal with jackasses but you shouldn’t mess with my bike. My bike is one of the few worldly possessions that I still have and well, I try to take care of it. So I guess it was time to find this guy and get my $300 back out of him, tires ain’t cheap you know. The bad thing about the whole situation was, as I learned from Jack, the jackass was the local deputy sheriff. I try and keep away from the law and draw as little attention to myself as possible, just don’t think a cage made out of steel bars is in line with my way of living but sometimes you just have to step outside of your comfort zone and do what needs to be done. So over the next day or two I did a little snooping around trying to see where he went, how long he stayed and such and it seems he was at the bar most nights. With a little planning I had figured how this whole thing was going down.
Understand, trying to “get back at the man” and stay under the radar is never an easy thing to do, but knowing their habits help. The way I was figuring it (after a little talk with Jack) if just enough repair parts were sold to the Sheriffs Dept. there might be just enough extra money for me to put tires back on my ride not to mention the cost of a tow. So a little tit for tat and the Jackasses cruiser needs a few new tires and some odds and ends replaced. Sorry for all of the taxpayer dollars down the drain but like i said I am not too keen on bars so confronting this guy head on and getting my face plastered all over the place was out of the question.
So Tuesday night Jack gets a call for a late night tow. He brings the car in long after I had crashed from my side project that night. To get the car back on the road would mean a trip to the next county for a few special order dealer only parts like tail light lens covers and a side window or two. That morning the boss had me go pick up all of the stuff that they had in stock. The rest would just have to be sent by the UPS guy.
On the way, minding my own business, wouldn’t you know it there was a county car pulling me over just a short ways from the county line. Sure enough there was jackass and I guess one of his lawdogg buddies. They both get out; I could see they were wasting no time calling in the stop like normal (you know that nice pause cops use after they pull you over to torture you). As they approached the pickup jackass was on the drivers’ side while his buddy moved along a few paces behind him. It sure wasn’t looking good for the home team. That’s when deputy jackass asked me politely to step out of the truck and place my hands on the hood. Knowing that no matter what I did I was in a bad spot I decided to go ahead and un-ass the truck. I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. About the time I had turned around to place my hands on the hood I felt the hot flash of blinding pain shoot through my head. I guess they didn’t want to disappoint my pessimistic point of view.
Not really sure how long my little beating went on but it seemed to last for a few hours. It probably only lasted for a few minutes though. All I could do was try and protect the vital parts of the body and hope for the best. Once the beating was over I got my warning to leave town and not to come back. If I was seen again that would be the last anyone seen of me. As they left I laid there bleeding a little on the ground, I figured it might be best to sit there for a minute while the world came back into focus. Lesson 1 don’t screw with the local jackass if he wears a badge, the bad thing is I never cared too much for school.
Soon I was back in the truck heading to go pick up the parts. I think I made it back to Jack’s sometime around 3 in the afternoon. Of course he eyes the cuts and bruises that were showing and asked what happened, and in a few minutes he was caught up with all the details. After my tail of adventure was over Jack pointed me to the tires over in the corner of the shop. It seems while I was off having fun my Metzlers had arrived. After a few hours had passed Jack shut down for the day and commenced to helping me get the fresh new rubber on my bike. It didn’t take us very long, maybe a little over a hour and a half and we were finished and working on a 10oz adult beverage. Jack pulls an envelope from his pocket and let’s me know in no uncertain terms that it looked like my time there was over. He says his good byes, asked me to lock up when I left in the morning, and leaves for the night. So that was it, time to pack it all up except for the bedroll and get ready for an early start in the morning.
Sleep came quick after another beer. There wasn’t any distractions to hold my attention or worth staying up for. The morning came even faster than the sleep did though. I had decided that 4 was a good a time as any to get up and get the bedroll on the bike. It only took me about 15 minutes to get everything settled and locked up and I was on the road again. I really didn’t have enough cash in my pocket to carry me as far as I like but I did have a full tank of gas and an early start. I was hoping to put that state in the rear view mirror before that day was done.
I think I was about a block from Jack’s when I noticed the truck pull out from a dark side road and start following me. I didn’t pay it too much attention until it had followed me through about three other turns. As we headed out of town and the lights of the houses faded in the distance the truck started following a little closer until I noticed that he was right off of my back tire. So I gave Beth a little gas and tried to pull away a little but the truck stayed with me. Before I knew it I had the poor old pan wound up tight. I was creeping up on around 90mph or so and that truck was still there. Knowing that my chances of outrunning this guy anytime soon were slim to none I decided a few curves might let me pull away. Just ahead a little side road that forked off of the main road in a curve was just what I needed. I veered off onto it and kept the throttle on the stops. I knew the first few curves were mild so I would be able to keep it pegged. The truck managed to stay rather close through those curves but I did manage to squeeze a little distance in between us. The next curve was a nice little diminishing radius that went off to the left and was somewhere around a 120 degrees and I sure was hoping the guy following me didn’t know the road too well. Through the other curves I had managed to open up about five car lengths. That was just enough for me to get out of it and down shift before I threw my bike into the curve. The truck barely missed rear ending me right about the time I went to leaning into the curve hard. That’s when his headlight disappeared from my mirrors. I rode the curve out and then slowed her down to see what I could see and the truck was nowhere to be seen. I stayed out of it for another few minutes until I was sure that I had lost the truck. After a while I put the bike back in the wind and pushed on to the highway and the next county. Sometime around noon I pulled off into a little dive to grab a bite. While watching the news a breaking story came on, it seems one of the deputies from a few counties over had run his truck into a ravine during the early morning hours. They say he wasn’t wearing his seat belt and was catapulted through the windshield into the side of the ravine. They pronounced him DOA.
This is the first part of a series that I am writing. I should be publishing one every month and if I start writing a little faster maybe more than one. If you would like to make sure you catch every episode subscribe to the feed for this site by mail or just tune back in about this time next month. We will all find out how the main character picked up his beloved panhead “Beth”.
This story is not based on any event fact or fiction. All characters here are fiction