Hell Fires (Age-Gap Romance)

“There’s nothing better than shredding the open road and feeling that hum beneath you,” he told me. He accelerated again and we flew down the nearly empty interstate like a shooting star. My heart was in my throat and my chest cavity filled with an effervescence that lifted my soul.

When we pulled off the highway and into more residential territory, I wondered if people were looking at us, sizing us up. What I missed seeing the most was people, even more than mother nature or the beauty in details, I missed scrutinizing people’s faces. Seeing their reactions, to something they loved, to what they feared, to the things in life that made them tear up. Minutia that the seeing crowd took for granted, looking into a stranger’s eyes and watching them soften with compassion. Watching a child’s eyes brighten with enthusiasm as they saw something for the first time. Even pain was beautifully reflected in the face of someone you loved.

We stopped at a red light and the hum stopped with the bike as well as the soft breeze that kissed my limbs. But my buzz didn’t stop at all; I was flying higher than I’d ever been. I clung to Maverick tightly already feeling like I never wanted to let go. I had to rein in my emotions and try to keep my cool. This guy was likely in charge of my boss and whatever happened to my job. Meaning my livelihood, my future, my ability to graduate school and try to make a nice life for myself and Shakespeare. Get the fuck out of Dodge, or in this case, Brook Hill where the vampires came out at night, but the zombies ruled during the day.

“Full moon,” Maverick said. “Just popped out from behind a cloud.” He pointed to the sky. I followed the movement of his hand to look into the vast darkness. I couldn’t see it, not through the visor, the moon wasn’t bright enough for my weak eye to register. But I imagined it anyway, with his leather gloved finger touching it, luminous and friendly, the sleepwalking cousin to the sun, shining down on us through all of the stardust.

“It’s got a silver cast to it tonight and the stars are so bright, you get lost in the layers of them. I can see the craters from this angle, the ones that look like a face. Moon man is old but his moonlight is strong enough to make shadows. I can see us on the pavement, your arms wrapped around me. We look like a two headed wheeled creature.”

My throat caught and I couldn’t speak. He was describing what he saw as if he were a camera recording the world to relay it back to me. I think it was the first time anyone had ever taken the time to do that for me. Simple yet profound, the gesture disoriented me. It made me feel like I could see. I wanted to thank him and yet, I couldn’t get the words to leave me.

“Maverick, turn right one street after the next light. I’m two blocks down on the end, south side of the street,” was all I could manage. I couldn’t even use landmarks. I knew stoplights and exactly how many minutes they took, precisely how many seconds it took for the bus to crawl from one stop to the next, yet I couldn’t tell him if there was a person crossing in front of the bike he might hit. My vision at night was close to non-existent, which made it dangerous for me to be running about, especially alone, especially in Brook Hill.

“I put you into the GPS on my phone, Sophie.”

“Good thinking. The seeing impaired aren’t exactly known for giving driving directions.”

“I didn’t say that,” he said. He sounded kind of serious. “I hate that you live here.”

I wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but I could easily guess: one of the many tents along the sidewalks and spilling into the parking lots where any number of souls down on their luck spent the cold night. A wandering sex worker looking for one last John before they called it a night. Pushers or pimps pulling out knives or even a piece when an argument got territorial. You didn’t need twenty-twenty vision to see that this part of town was shot to hell and the residents had gone with it.

“On the bright side, my little house is huge for me! And it’s cute, and I can afford to live alone. People don’t fuck with me because they know I have a mean dog. Half of them think I’m an emo boy wandering around with a crate of records and still looking for a paying gig. And if they get testy, I just lift up my hair and pretend to stare at them with old blue. They run the other way. Honestly, I’ve never had a problem. Even the McDonalds is cheaper on this side of town.”