I
The smell of the highway was starting to become the personal aura that followed Ailine everywhere she went. Rolling and rolling, there was no ending to her race. The mountain defeated her, but she was willing to come back, but now it was not the time.
The days were always dominated by white and enormous clouds in the skies, but for her, it was always stormy because she never took those sun glasses off. A permanent storm with only one way out: The road. She only had to focus in going forward; otherwise the storm would sweep her away.
Fuel was running low, the journey had to stop for a few minutes, there was always a gas station/restaurant at her disposition, and she only had to take her glasses off.
“That’s a fine bike” said the waiter as he delivered her cup of coffee.
“It is” she replied, blowing the hot smoke of the cup.
“I used to have one of them until some god-damned bastards stole it from me when I wasn’t looking at my backyard…”
The man expected some kind of signal of sympathy or even a “That sucks” but nothing came from the girl.
“… Those are great for recovering long distance; may I ask where are you going?”
Ailine drank a little bit of coffee and replied.
“Going north for the moment, it doesn’t seem that my destination is changing any time soon.”
The man just began to look at her with eyes of speculation.
“North? ...are you heading to the mountain?”
She nodded while watching the wooden table.
The man laughed a little bit.
“Are you one of those bikers who are trying to reach the top of the mountain?”
“Take a guess” she said.
The waiter had a wide open smile.
“Oh man, I knew there was something special about you.”
The other customers were starting to yell at the waiter, impatiens for their lack of customer attention. The waiter went away for a few minutes, and then he returned back.
“Let me tell you something, beautiful. Your bike is fine, I mean is goddamn fine, no question about it. But you will never reach the top of that mountain with it, I’m sorry but it can’t be done. You know how to ride, but there’s only one way for reaching that summit, baby, and that’s flying.”
Smiling she responded.
“I know that well old fella, I’ve fallen many times and I’ve seen many more fall, but thanks for reminding me.”
“Then why the hell are you going back there, are you waiting a miracle or something?”
Ailine heard that word and something awoke inside her. The mountain was the only thing that she lived for, if something like that ever happened she would have no idea of how to react. That would defeat the entire meaning of riding and she knew that at the moment that she stopped riding, the storm would sweep her away into oblivion. Perhaps a miracle was the last thing that she wanted.
“I just like to try and fail.” she answered.
“God, you DO need a miracle” said the waiter as he went to recover some plates of other customers.
Ailine’s cup was empty and there was nothing for her left to do there, so, it was moment to return to the road.
“But maybe, I’ll be your miracle man today” said the waiter when Ailine was just about to ask for the bill.
“What do you mean?” she asked, just as a reflex.
The waiter’s face started to evoke a great mystery.
“Do you know who Teller da Speller is?”
Ailine had heard the myth before and she didn’t want to lose any more time talking about it.
“Yes, the mechanic from another planet, I’ve heard about it, could you please bring me the bill?”
“You said it as if it were some kind of folk story” The waiter said.
“I don’t know a lot of people from other planets, but the ones I do know, are not mechanics.”
“Well, this one is, I know that I’m demanding skepticism here but he’s the greatest and most legendary mechanic of this generation, he could take whatever piece of shit and transform it into a magical and unstoppable rocket that could travel galaxies!” the waiter didn’t regulate his volume and the entire restaurant was looking at him.
“You talk about him as if he was real.”
The waiter began to laugh.
“Oh, my young lady, he IS real. I know him personally, in fact…” he came closer to the girl as if he was about to whisper a big secret “he’s the step brother of the owner of this chain of restaurants”.
Ailine had lost enough time chatting, the road was waiting for her.
“I can contact him if you want, you would be amazed of what he can do. Lokie Santana… I mean, he was an excellent rider but he would have gotten nowhere if it wasn’t for the bike that Mr. da Speller prepared for him. Oh man, with a bike like that, the summit of that mountain would kiss your tires.”
Ailine didn’t know how much she owned and she wasn’t going to wait for the bill, so she just left 10 bucks on the table and she stood up.
“Not interested right now but thanks for the offer.” she said while leaving.
Thanks for reading :)
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