Chapter 15

 

It would only be a couple of days before Tom and I would be headed out West on our run to Sturgis so I wanted to spend as much time alone with Linda as I could before leaving. Tom agreed and suggested that he meet me at the house the day of our departure.

We spent the next couple hours retrieving some of the money that used to belong to Bruce and opening checking and savings accounts at a bank that had branches throughout the United States. We reasoned that we would then be able to put our hands on it wherever our road trip would take us.

Using Mr. Saxton’s advice, we each put five thousand in each of our accounts. He had suggested never transacting anything more than $9,900 to avoid any attention. We figured we would be extra safe about it. Neither Tom nor I were very worldly about finance and we surely didn’t want to take any chances.

That night I wanted to surprise Linda with the fact that the house was now ours. I thought about putting the key to the house in a box and giving it to her. That idea quickly changed when I thought she might figure it to be an engagement ring. That would have been really awkward so I decided just to tell her instead. I was anxious to tell her and as soon as she walked through the door I handed her my key to the house.

“You’re leaving?” she said suspecting that I decided to take the money and run.

“No,” I said, “here. This is the key to your house.”

“I know. I have one right here,” she said putting the key she had just opened the door up to my face.

“No. These two keys here open the door to your house,” I said emphasizing the ‘your house’. “It’s yours – no more rent – you own it.”

She was overwhelmed. Throughout the whole deal with the money Linda had never really asked for much. She just wasn’t that way. I knew that most other things meant more to her but, now, knowing she had her own home brought her to tears.

“What, you’re not happy about that?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, still crying. “I’m happy. I’m very, very happy.”

She hugged me saying she wanted it to be our house and she emphasized ‘our house’. I then handed her the information Mr. Saxton had given me telling her to call these people and set up a time to sign some papers and do the closing on the house. The next two days passed quickly and there we were pushing the motorcycles out of the garage.

“I’ll see you in 30 days,” Linda said as she grabbed me by the arm. She then hugged me telling me how much she loved me and to be safe. When Tom fired up his motorcycle I told her I had to go. I told her I loved her, too, and that I would call her.

As we headed north on I-95 the August sun was already heating the air enough so you could feel it in your lungs when you breathed. I was looking forward to reaching a more northern latitude that would bring cooler summertime temperatures.

The old panhead motorcycle sounded good and, as we rode, I thought about all that had happened since the last time I had made a road trip on it. There was the boat trip with Bruce, the venture down through the islands in the Scarab, meeting Ava and Evonne, the experience with Bishop, André’s offer to fly for him and then, there was the money.

Again I thought to myself, I need to write it all down, thinking it would make a great story. I eased my motorcycle up alongside Tom’s, we exchanged smiles and a thumbs up.

We were off on another adventure!

 

THE END