Excerpt: Just Older

It was still somewhat early to be heading home, but after having his butt kicked twice in one night; Andrew wasn’t one to stay in the back room with the rest of the guys. He knew when it wasn’t his night to shoot, and even though the night started off well, it turned very quickly. After a quick burger at the front bar, he killed the rest of his drink and headed out to his bike. The 1992 Harley Roadster still looked like it just came out of the store. Andrew could see his reflection even now in the shiny black paint job and the chrome reflected the moonlight just as well as if it were noon. He was nothing if not meticulous about cleaning and caring for the bike, including adding some of his own personal touches. A quick walk around, to make sure all was in order, he hopped on and started the engine.
Pulling out onto the main road to head home, Andrew could hear a couple cars revving their engines in the distance. Thinking nothing of it, he pulled to a stop at the red light and hit the left turn signal. The distant revving started getting louder, and as the turn light switched to green Andrew dropped into gear and slowly started to move the bike. All of a sudden coming down the hill straight at where Andrew was making his turn, two tricked out sports cars come barreling down the street. One slamming on his brakes, swerved out into the other lane before coming to a stop in the bushes that lined the road. The other car, thinking he had the win, realized too late the light at the bottom of the hill was red and plowed right through the light catching the back of Andrew’s bike just as he was starting to accelerate onto the straight road.
The car just missed crushing Andrew and instead tossed him off the side of the bike and onto the hood of the car in the next lane waiting for the light to turn in his favor. The hood of the Toyota Prius never stood a chance from the impact of Andrew’s two hundred pound frame crashing against it. The entire front of the car gave way as Andrew crashed into it and slid off the other side onto the pavement. All that he could muster before the darkness took over was a slight groan of pain. And then all went black.

The blackness of his dream gave way to the dim of the hospital room as Andrew woke with a start. If there was any question about how he had wound up in the state he was in it all came crashing back to him in that one dream. He was amazed at the intricate details that he was able to remember, the sounds of the engines revving up as they came flying over the hill and down the street at him. The smell of burning rubber as one of the two driver’s tried to slam on his brakes to no avail, coupled with the acidic smell of steam pouring out of the engine of the now wrecked Spyder that did make contact with his bike. He could almost still feel the gravel under his face and arms as he lay on the pavement after sliding off the hood of the now crushed Prius. It was as if all his sense had frozen in that moment in time and permanently etched them into his brain for the rest of his existence.
His conscious finally released his hold on the past memories and brought his sense back to the antiseptic smells of the hospital room. Normally he would not have enjoyed the smells of hospital, but compared to the stench of burning rubber and engine grime it was a welcome escape. A quick look around the room could not place the time of day is Andrew’s mind. The only thing that could clue him in was the small lines of sunshine that streaked across the floor of the room from the closed blinds. The pilgrims still starring at him from the bulletin board across the room seemed to almost mock him and his mental anguish. How he wished he could climb out of bed and rip them off the wall, burning them in the metal trash can in the corner. With nothing else to do for the evening, he slowly slipped back into the sleep that he was fighting off, praying for a night without dreams of accidents and pain.