The Sin Eater
Page 26
“It’s red.” Lisa smiled. “But where’s your license plate? What kind of motorcycle is that?”
“Don’t laugh.”
“Why would I laugh?”
“It’s called an Indian.”
“Oh, that is funny,” Lisa said.
“Hey, it’s American.”
Lisa put her handkerchief back in her pocket and closed the hood.
“And what do I need a license for?” He was tall in his seat. “I don’t need no stinking license!”
“Oh, you are a rebel.”
“I’ve got the world right here. A hundred thousand acres.” He held his hand out toward the mesas in the distance. “As long as I stay on the reservation, I’m golden.”
What did she know? What did anybody know? If he said it, it must be true. Or maybe she knew it from a previous life.
“So do you need a lift?”
Lisa grinned. “It’d be my first time on a motorcycle. And I’m not sure where I’m going.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “I kind of like the sound of that.”
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Six Months Later
Kate Grammaticus pulled herself up off the floor and used her canes to walk over to the front door to get the mail.
“Hold him up,” she chirped to her daughter Emma. “Jack can’t sit up by himself yet.”
“Okay, but when will he?” Emma said.
“Soon,” Kate smiled. “You’ll see.”
Adam Grammaticus pretended to focus on the stack of papers before him as he sat cross-legged at the coffee table, but he was actually just eavesdropping, reveling in the bliss of domestic life that percolated all around him.
“Adam the benefits package came,” Kate said.
“Well, there goes the rest of the afternoon. Let me see it.”
“It does weigh a ton.”
Kate made her way slowly over to the coffee table and dropped the envelope with a thud.
“If there’s a check in there, please fish it out,” she said. “I know it’s just a start up, but when are they going to send you your first paycheck?”
“Patience my sweet. Patience. Just remember your mantra.”
"Stock options. Stock options."
“That’s a good girl.”
Jack made a funny spitting sound with his tongue and Emma dissolved into laughter.
“I don’t think Jackie likes ‘sock options’,” Emma said, as her parents smiled.
“Oh look,” Kate said, rifling the rest of the envelopes, “we got a postcard.”
As she turned it over to read, Adam spied a photo of a buxom woman on a red motorcycle on the front: Come Ride the New Indian.
“There’s no message,” Kate said. “Just a postmark from Bridal Veil, Oregon, and some initials.”
“What are they,” Adam asked.
“IIWII…what’s that?”
Adam smiled. “It is what it is. It’s a biker thing. It’s one of Tugg’s stock phrases.”
Kate’s eyes lit up with possibilities.
“It means you have to accept what you can’t change. They’ve even got a patch for it.”
“Is Uncle Tugg coming?” Emma said.
“No, I don’t think so,” Kate answered, handing the postcard to Adam. “He’s just saying hello. I think.”
Adam flipped the postcard over and back several times, then noticed that there was another imprint superimposed next to the postmark. It looked like the faint outline of a lipstick kiss.
Well, I’ll be damned, Adam said to himself. I guess something HAS changed.
“Adam,” Kate called to him, breaking the reverie.
“What?”
“We got something else in the mail too. This is even weirder.”
Adam pushed himself up and walked over to Kate.
“What is it?”
He put his arms around her slender waist and laid his chin on her tiny shoulder.
“Is this some kind of a joke?” She held out the glossy magazine with a photo of a nearly naked woman in black chaps straddling a motorcycle on the cover. “How in the world did you end up with a subscription to Easyriders?”