Plus, I was not yet one of the top guys. It was a bit of a long road to go, but I had my foot in the door, if I didn’t blow it by doing stupid stunts of course. And what were the odds of that happening? Sometimes I was too foolhardy for my own good. I was aware of this.
“So, tell me about yourself,” I asked as we drove along after a few minutes of silence.
“What’s to tell?” She said coyly.
“I don’t know; that’s why I asked,” I kidded.
She smirked at me. “I was born and raised around here. My family died when I was young, but I was raised by a good friend of the family. And I help run my family’s business.”
“That sounds interesting. You one of those high powered business women I see on television sometimes?”
Leia laughed. “I hate television. And I’m only high powered in the minds of some people.”
“So, what were you going to do today? I’m sure I messed up your plans a bit. My bad.”
“You are fine. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that I didn’t accidentally kill you. I still can’t figure out how you got off the bike and onto that hill without being crushed by my car.”
“Well, the best that I can remember. I saw your car as I was in the air coming over the hill. I didn’t have time to react. Suddenly, I was on the road and instantly your bumper was banging into me. I knew that I was in trouble so, as the car started to go down I leapt to the side and luckily I chose the side you did not swerve to. I remember landing and bouncing a few times before I finally stopped. I didn’t realize where I was and barely remembered what happened when I heard you yelling for me.”
Leia shivered as if something wicked had just crawled up her skin.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was just answering truthfully. I don’t mean to make you relive it. I’m going to try not to and just be thankful that I am able to just continue on this crazy life excursion.”
Leia snorted in a chuckle.
I smiled back. I was curious now. “What?”
“I’ve just never heard anyone describe life as an excursion.”
“Well, I believe that this life is just a brief interlude on our way to another much more interesting plane of existence. Sorry, sometimes I let my metaphysical stuff get a bit out of whack. I have some strange beliefs. Some might say I’m quirky.”
“Oh, you are definitely quirky, but unique is more the word that I would use.”
I paused and thought a moment. “Yeah. I guess that works.”
She pulled up in front of my place right then and I started to get out of her car.
“Hey, thanks so much for the lift,” I said.
“It’s the least I can do,” she replied. “I really hope you are able to work everything out with your bike and the race. I wish you all the best of luck.”
I suddenly decided to go for it. This was as good a time as any.
“Hey, why don’t you come and watch me race,” I suggested.
She seemed amused by the idea. “Really?”
“Yeah. You’ve never seen it in person before. I think it will be a huge treat for you. I’ll have them leave a ticket for you by the gate. It’s no problem. I get some freebies to pass out.”
I almost added the words “to friends.” I was glad I stopped that; I sure didn’t want Leia to consider me just a friend. She was a hell of a great woman and I was very much interested in getting to know her on a more romantic level. I wasn’t sure if the sparks were flowing for her about me, but I believed I was charming enough to bring her around if she got to know me better.
“Sure, I think I will,” Leia said.
“Great. I’ll see you then.”
Leia waved bye and drove away. I stood there watching her for a few minutes as she disappeared over the hill at the end of the street.
It felt good to be home. Once inside I took a quick shower, letting the hot water soothe my aching muscles. It felt great. The tension of the day as well as the desert dirt I’d landed in dissipated off my body easily. Afterwards I felt like a new man.
Grabbing a beer from the fridge I sat down on the couch and pulled up my laptop. I quickly opened up the search engine and it pulled up my most recent search result, populating the last page I’d visited first. I began to read, glad to have a chance to finally relax after a hectic day.
The article I was reading was about Leia Daniels. I’d started reading about her a few weeks ago and the more I found out, the more intrigued I became. This was going to be a dicey deal indeed, and I was sure it would work. It had to. My funds were dwindling by the day and the motocross thing just didn’t seem to be in the cards for me. I had not been blessed with an overabundance of that particular talent it would seem, but I could fake it for a while anyway. At least long enough to get to the next stage of my project.