“Oh, oh, I got one. Remember in Clovis, New Mexico, when Crowbar walked out of the bar to find that little old lady sitting on his bike. Her skirt hiked up to here…” Thelma patted the top of her thighs. “I still remember what Crowbar said.” She cleared her throat and lowered her voice, “’Ma’am, I think you’re on the wrong bike. That there is my bike.’”
All four of them laughed. Sarah imagined the big guy embarrassed to have to kick the little old lady off his bike. She pushed her plate back and tossed her napkin in the middle of the it.
“Okay, my stomach hurts from all the laughing and food. I can’t eat another bite.” She leaned back, her hands on her tummy.
Sunflower glanced at her watch. “The guys are probably back and wondering where we are.”
“I hope Crank won a few games tonight. I’d love to go back to that little boutique, you know, by the candy store? The scarf in the window was to-die-for.” Thelma pulled her bushy hair back from her face. “I’d tie it around my head while I ride and look exactly like those women who drive their convertibles down Rodeo Drive.”
Sunflower raised her brows. “That’s all Crank needs to worry about… He’d have to beat the men off you with how fine you’d be looking.”
“Damn straight!” Thelma lowered her hands and laughed.
They all chipped in to pay the bill. Too full to walk the mile to the campground, they hailed a cab to drive them back. Sarah sat up front with the driver. All of them seemed much quieter on the ride home, and Sarah wondered if their thoughts strayed to the men back at camp the way hers did.
Sunflower paid the cabby and wished the girls goodnight. Sarah headed toward her and Reefer’s tent, a smile on her face. Maybe Reefer and Knuckles had figured out where the next leg of the trip would take them.
She unzipped the tent and peeked in, expecting Reefer to already be inside. She frowned. The inside of the tent had been cleaned out, and she wondered where everything went.
“Your things are packed. I’m taking you to the train station.” Reefer stood off to the side under the cover of the trees.
She smiled and moved toward him. “What are you talking about? Tomorrow we leave to somewhere new.”
He shook his head.
She stopped. The lines on his forehead stood out, and the muscle in his jaw worked overtime.
“Reefer, what’s wrong? What happened?”
She stepped in front of him. Her hand came up to touch him, but he jerked away.
“You played me for a fool, Sarah. I’m sending you back.” He turned his back to her and picked up her bags that sat on the picnic table.
“A fool? I don’t understand. What did I do?” Sarah tried to remove the bags from his hands, but he kept them tight in his fists. “Reefer, talk to me! This isn’t funny. You’re scaring me.”
“I’m sure your friend, Ellen, can explain it to you. She seems pretty clever and knows how this works. I can see why you two like each other.” He pulled the bags out of her reach and walked toward his bike.
“Reefer, stop!” Sarah grabbed the back of his shirt. “I can’t leave. I love you. You said you loved me!”
He started the engine and drowned out anything else she said. She crossed her arms. She wasn’t going anywhere until she got some answers.
This is crazy!
She planted her feet and refused to get on the bike. Reefer stared straight ahead and silently waited.
“Get on the bike, Daughter.”
Sarah turned around and found Knuckles standing there with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“What? Tell me what is going on. What did I do?” She lifted her hands and shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Knuckles shook his head. He placed his hand on her back and pressed her forward. “I will honor Reefer’s decision until he tells me otherwise.”
In a daze, she climbed onto the back of the bike. She stared at Knuckles, at his face closed off to any emotion.
What did I do?
Unable to communicate on the way to the train station, Sarah clutched at Reefer’s shirt, afraid to wrap her arms around him. Her tears fell faster than the wind could dry them. By the time they arrived, Sarah had worked herself into a state of disbelief.
“Here’s enough money to make it back to Astoria.” Reefer lay a fist full of bills in her hand. “Go back to Ellen.”
She stood there with her hand full of money, a bag at her feet, and gazed at Reefer driving off down the street. He gave her no reason, no excuses, he just dropped her off and forgot about everything they’d planned together. What did he expect her to do?
What about the love they shared? The baby they wanted? The next trip?
“Miss, are you all right?” a woman asked.
Sarah turned her head. The woman patted her hand, and she glanced down at the pile of money Reefer gave her.
Oh my God, was he so desperate to get rid of me that he’d give me every penny he earned this week?
“Can I help you find someone?” The woman stayed beside her.
She cleared her throat. “No. Thank you.” She picked up her bag and entered the train station.
The other people in line glanced over their shoulder and quickly looked away when they saw her crying. She wiped the tears off her face with her shirtsleeve. She tried to remember the last thing she and Reefer had talked about before he left for work that morning, but only memories of making love before he left and she fell back asleep came to mind.
Even Knuckles had sent her away. Did Sunflower and the other women know Reefer planned to get rid of her? She shook her head. No, they’d treated her like part of the family on their day out on the town.
“Next!”
She stepped up to the window, laid all the money she held in her hand on the counter, and pushed it through the hole.
“Where to?” the man on the other side of the glass asked.
“Astoria, Oregon,” she mumbled.
He pressed a few buttons on the computer, then slid a ticket back to her. He frowned at the pile of money. She waited for him to sort the amount out and hand her the change.
“Train leaves in a half hour, station B.”
Chapter Seventeen
Reefer sped back to the campsite, daring the cops to put his ass in jail. He wanted to leave this town and his troubles behind, and to forget about the woman named Sarah who took his heart and stomped it to pieces.
He pulled up to his tent and found Knuckles sitting outside on the picnic table. He glared. He shut the bike off and moved over to dismantle the tent. He didn’t want to talk about what went down tonight.
“You okay?”
“Yep.” He kicked at the stake.
“Did Sarah have enough money to get back safely?”
“Gave her every penny I had.” He lifted the corner of the tent.
Knuckles came over and worked one of the poles out of the hole. “Did you have a fight?”
“Nope.” He threw the pole on the ground and began to fold the tent up.
“Okay, well…you know where I am if you want to talk. Are you still heading to Dallas with us?”
Reefer nodded.
Knuckles patted him on the shoulder and walked away. Reefer grew frustrated over fitting the tent back into the sack, marched over to the garbage can, and dumped the tent and all the accessories inside.
He didn’t understand how a search in her bag for the hairbrush she carried had turned into the shock of his life.
Talk about being blindsided!
He pulled the postcard he found out of his back pocket and read Sarah’s writing again.
Hi Ellen,
You were so right! It’s everything you said it would be, and Reefer is wonderful. I’m so glad I listened to you and followed my dreams of joining a motorcycle family. It was a piece of cake! Your advice and experience prepared me for life on the road. I’m in Portland, but headed for Arizona. I’ll write soon and tell you more about Reefer.
Love,
Sarah
He glanced over at the address and spat on the ground.
Ellen Donaldson.
***
Carrying her bag, Sarah marched along the sidewalk towards Ellen’s house. Her gaze flashed fire at anyone who dared to glance her way. The tears had stopped yesterday, and with it she found the anger to make it the rest of the trip.
She’d given up her apartment, her job, and everything she owned. He even kept her heart, leaving her an empty shell of a body to live the rest of her life with.
I didn’t do a damn thing to deserve this!
She hoped Ellen might let her stay a few nights at her house, and if not, she’d have to go back to the reservation. Instead of advancing in life, Reefer pushed her back to a past she didn’t want to visit.
She knocked at the door. It swung open, and a woman she didn’t recognize stood on the other side.
“Is Ellen at home? I’m a friend.”
The woman stood back. “Yes, I just got done with her morning exercises. Come in.”
The woman followed her into the living room. Ellen raised her head. A smile broke out over her face, but quickly disappeared.
“Mrs. Donaldson, I’m going to leave. I’ll see you Wednesday, okay?” The nurse picked up her bag and smiled over her shoulder at Sarah. “Enjoy your visit, ladies.”
Sarah waited for the front door to shut and hurried over to her friend. “How are you?”
Ellen waved the question away. “Why are you here?”
Sarah inhaled through her nose and sat on the couch across from Ellen’s chair. “Reefer kicked me out.”
“What? Why?” Ellen moved her wheelchair closer.
Sarah shrugged. “I have no idea. He won’t talk to me. I came back to find my stuff packed. He gave me money and left me at the train station. He told me to come back to you. He wouldn’t explain what happened or tell me what I did.” Her eyes welled up. “I gave him everything. We loved each other and talked about spending our whole lives together.”
“You didn’t have an argument?” Ellen wrung her hands.
“Nope. We got along great. I went out with the other women in the family, and when I came back, he had my bag packed and told me to get on the bike. He took me to the train station and said for me to go to my friend, Ellen. Here I am!” She laughed to keep from bawling. “Joke’s on me. He used me and threw me away!”
“Sarah, exactly what did he say when he told you to come to me?” Ellen’s brows came together.
“I don’t know. Something about how you could explain it to me. I think he was just talking about how you have experience with motorcycle people. I really don’t know. He wasn’t making much sense.” She shook her head.
Ellen wheeled her chair away and moved over in front of the picture window. She gazed out onto the street. Sarah frowned. Why did it seem that she was the only one who didn’t understand what was happening?
“Ellen? What’s going on? Do you know why Reefer would send me away?” She stood and stepped over to stand beside her. “No, that’s silly. You wouldn’t know.”
Ellen put her head in her hands. “Will you do me a favor? In the kitchen above the refrigerator in the cabinet, there’s a whiskey bottle…bring it to me with a cup.”
“Ellen—”
“Just do it, please. I’ll explain it all to you after I have a drink.” She brought her head up, but kept her eyes closed.
Sarah hurried to the kitchen, pulled a chair away from the table, and climbed up to retrieve the bottle. She returned the chair and grabbed a small glass from the cupboard. Ellen never drank—at least not that she knew of—and she wondered what Ellen planned to tell her that she needed to numb her body first.
She brought the drink to Ellen and placed it in her hands. Ellen’s hands trembled, and she frowned.
“Sit down, Sarah.”
She sat. “What’s wrong, Ellen? Does this involve Reefer and me?”
Ellen nodded and took another sip. “Promise me you’ll sit and listen without questioning me first?”
“Of course, but—”
Ellen smiled, her eyes filled with tears. “Please?”
She nodded and scooted to the edge of the couch.
“Thirty-five years ago, I was young, carefree, and ready for adventure. Like yourself, I wanted to escape a troubled past with a father who beat up on my mother and me whenever he got a bug up his ass.” She raised the glass to her lips and swallowed. “I lived at home. Not too far from here, but right on the shoreline. I went walking late one night along the sand because my dad was due home, and I knew he’d been out drinking.” Ellen closed her eyes. “I ran into this young man trying to sleep on the sand. He asked me where I was going, and I told him nowhere and anywhere.” She chuckled. “He said I could go with him, that he knew how to get there.”
Sarah smiled and sat back.
“I stayed out all night. We talked and talked. He walked me back to the house in the morning and announced he’d tell my parents why I never came home.” She opened her eyes. “He thought that would keep me out of getting in trouble, you see.
“My dad had already left the house, and my mom came to the door with a black eye and swollen lip. Gunner, that was the man’s name, turned to me and asked me to go away with him on his motorcycle. Without a second thought, I hurried in, got a few clothes, kissed my mom goodbye, and never looked back.”
When her glass was empty, Ellen handed the cup to Sarah. “Pour me a little more, dear.”
Sarah filled the glass halfway, carried it back to her, and sat on the couch without saying a word.
“After a few years of riding the countryside with the makeshift oddballs we called family, I got pregnant.” She laughed. “Gunner was beside himself. Promised to buy us a house, get a job, and become a respectable citizen.”
Ellen shook her head. “We ended up renting a place for five years, but the road called him back every chance he got. That man loved his bike and the freedom he got from riding.
“I stayed home with our son, but weird things started to happen. I’d go to get a glass out of the cupboard and drop it. I’d play catch with the boy and miss the ball. You know how this disease is, one minute you’re fine, and the next your muscles don’t work.”