Moonlight Mile

The ride to work was packed with idiots. As it always is these days. Work had gotten me down. As it often does these days. By the time I got free it was dark. As it often is these days. As The bike warmed, the sky was clouded and lit from behind by the moon. A diffused light like the dome light in an old buick. I needed to take the long way home.

The Guzzi rumbled beneath me as the cold etched its way into my bones. I rode the back roads and two lanes. Warm houses lit the road with warm pools of light. The cold was so deep, it seemed as if those lights actually changed the temperature of the wind on my face.

I climbed a hill and found a small town with the required local drinking house. restaurant by day, bar by night.

I had hoped for a quiet place to chase the cold, but this place was filled with happy variously drunken people on a friday night. After I swing off the old green bike, I hesitated. Maybe I could get a cup of coffee at a gas station further along.

Just then a guy and his gal were leaving and held the door open for me. I went in. the place was loud and packed. A band was playing tunes for people to make an attempt at dance in a small cleared space center of the joint.

I worked my way to a spot at the end of the bar. near the door. ready to escape. I nudged my way in and people backed away from the cold radiating from my leathers. I hunkered down as the bartender approached. coffee.

she swings by with a steaming cup, half full. I looked at her. she held up a coffee pot and a bottle of irish whiskey. I nodded at the bottle. She smiled and topped the cup.

The heat and the whiskey chased silver heat through the marrow of my bones.

I hunkered down in my small space.