A simple fork in the road
2002-07-08

The smoke is starting to clear. The fire hasn't gone out, the wind is just blowing it in a slightly different direction. Kind of like life huh? The big issues don't just go away, they just shift out of sight for a while.

Nothing going on today. I've checked my boards and diarys and now I'm sitting here blathering on about nothing. God I wish I could find the job that fits. I guess it will require patince, and luck, and fate....

Ah fate, luck of the draw. I just wrote to someone about my last motorcycle ride. We all had them. We weren't a gang or anything, but we loved to ride on the weekends. Out in the wilds of Connecticut, south county Rhode Island, the beaches... any where off the beaten track. We were all responsible too. Not a bunch of Yahoos. Yeah I dumped a ccouple of times, once in the snow, once when I got forced off the road by an old lady who never even saw me as she pulled out of the side street... Even with my headlight on and bright green jacket. That was a close one... I just missed a stone wall.

On night coming back from a night of cards, one beer each, that was it, we were riding, Mike and I were side by side, tooling along, not really in a hurry. We came to the fork, left was home for me, right was home for him. We'd done this a hundred times, no big deal, almost home. We waved, split and that was that. I got in a few minutes later, parked the bike and went to bed. The next morning I got the call. Somebody had driven him off the road. No skid marks, it was intentional. Mike was dead. Died next to his bike. They never caught person who killed him. I wonder if it eats at them, or if they were just able to let it pass. I went to the funeral, lots of guys took their bikes. Not me. Left or right, life or death... Could it be that random?

I cleaned the bike every week, and started it occasionally, but I never went back out. It eventually got sold with my second house. That was a while ago now. Why does it seem like yesterday? Could you live a normal life if you knew you took the life of another? For no reason? Just because he was on a motorcycle? Left or right, I guess some day that person will have that fork too. I hope the decision is more mercifull for their sake.

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