III
The sound of the knocking door was the only thing audible that rusty morning. She didn't even know what time it was, this was the first time in her life were she really needed to enter a restaurant and the restaurant was closed. She heard someone moving inside, so she knocked even harder. Someone finally opened the door.
"Young lady, we will open in two hours...oh it's you!" said the waiter.
"I need to talk to you" she said.
"Are you gonna get me in any trouble?, pretty girls like you always get me into trouble."
"No, no. It's about the thing you said the other day, you know... that miracle."
The waiter was completely confused, but after remembering their conversation a little bit he then understood what she was saying.
"Oh ok, I get cha... you can come in."
The man opened the doors.
"Thanks"
Once inside, all tables were empty and the cookers were preparing everything for the day to come.
"Are you hungry?" the waiter asked.
"A little bit"
"Billy, three fried eggs, please!" the waiter shouted at one cook.
"Customers are not supposed to be here now!" the cooker shouted back.
"She's a friend" he said.
"Is she another runaway that you're trying to rescue?" the cooker asked with a smile on his face.
"Just fry the damn eggs, would you?" he yelled at last.
She sat on the table where she sat before and once here eggs were ready, she began to eat immediately.
"Wow, wow. You might wanna slow down." said the waiter freaked out.
"Sorry" said Ailine as she regained her manners.
The waiter sat down in front of her.
"So, I see that you've changed you mind."
"I have... I need to meet him, I need to meet Speller, the mechanic, you said that he was the brother of the owner, right?" asked Ailine, with food in her mouth.
"Step brother, actually. Well, if you really want a meeting, I could make some calls to see if he is available."
"Would you? I really need to see him."
"Well" the waiter looked at his watch "He should be awake by now, you want me to give him a call?"
"Please" said Ailine with food still in her mouth.
The waiter stood up and he went to the back of the kitchen.
"Hey!" said Ailine while he was going. The waiter turned around.
"Really... thanks for everything."
The waiter smiled and said.
"Don't worry, you'll repay me."
The waiter went away and Ailine finished her eggs.
The time was passing by, the restaurant opened and the early customers began to arrive.
The waiter returned with some news.
"Well, it seems that it's not your lucky day, I talked to him, and he told he was going to be busy all week. Do you mind waiting?"
"Yes, where did you say he lives?" she asked while standing up.
"Wow, wow. Come on, I already talked to him, he's busy right now. You'll have to wait."
"I'm sorry, I can't wait" she insisted.
The waiter held Ailine's shoulders.
"Listen to me, Teller... he's... he's a good fella , okay. But right now, his going through some difficult times and when he's mad, oh boy, let me tell you. Right now it's just not a good moment, you'll just have to wait."
Ailine had never been more impatient in her life, she thought that she was probably abusing from the waiter's courtesy but she had to see da Speller now. The waiter began to clean Ailine's table and she finally came up with something.
"Wait a minute, you said he was going through some difficult times, does he need any help?"
"Well... I... I guess so." The waiter doubly responded.
"I can be his assistant" said Ailine with a smile.
"Well... see, I don't think that Teller has the money to pay an employee." replied the waiter as he was slowly loosing his patience.
"I can work for free, I can be his free assistant."
The waiter stopped cleaning.
"Boy, you really want to see him, don't you" he said, amazed and tired by Ailine's stubbornness.
"So, you actually want to work for free?" he asked Ailine.
"Call him right now, tell him that you're sending him a free assistant from your part with no charges what so ever. Hey, that will give you extra points with him and with your boss."
The waiter touched his chin, and then he began to laugh.
"I can't believe you, girl. God damn it! fine, I'll call him, you can go ahead... street 54, Pinewoods Downhill."
Ailine jumped and hugged him while kissing him on the lips. Before he could react, Ailine was already outside turning on the engine of his bike, he quickly ran outside.
"Thanks for the kiss sweety, but if you get me into trouble, you'll not be welcome here anymore, you're to much of a trouble." he shouted.
"Don't worry, you wont regret this!" she shouted before riding away.
There was something in the back of the waiter's mind telling him that she was gonna.
***
In less than ten minutes, Ailine was already in the Da Speller workshop. Even though she had heard all of the stories of this particular mechanic, his workshop seemed to be completely ordinary from outside, with the same rusty and messy decoration that you would expect, and the scary guardian dog, barking through the window.
The front door and the garage door were closed, so Ailine began to shout.
"Mr. da Speller, I'm here to help."
There was no response, only the loud warning that the rottweiler emitted but Ailine began to scream louder than the barks of the dog, eventually, after a few minutes she heard:
"Ok, ok, I'm going! I was in the restroom!."
The garage door began to open and there she saw him. He was a tall, skinny bald man, with a purple head and a red beard. He was a wearing a long white shirt and army pants.
"God hell, you're stubborn!" he said and Ailine smiled.
"Don't smile! It's not a positive characteristic what so ever."
Da Speller began to analyze her within a distance, Ailine felt a little bit uncomfortable so she began talking.
"I'm here to help you." she said
"Yes, I know, I've been informed. I just want to know with who I'm dealing with."
Da Speller walked towards her and shake her hand.
"So, you're going to be my guardian angel?" he said, while still analyzing her.
"I prefer the term assistant" she replied.
He stopped analyzing her, and now, she began to analyze him. It was the strangest looking person she had ever saw. She knew he was from another planet, but that was not enough for her brain to accept him as someone normal or someone who you shouldn't stare at.
"Well, you couldn't arrive at the best time, I already have a first mission for you."
Ailine wanted to get to the point and tell him why she was really there, but the man seemed to strange for her and she didn't even know how it was going to react.
"Is that so?"
"Yes, yesterday some group of scumbags broke in and they took my latest design, follow me."
The voice of da Speller seemed extremely angry, there was no question that he wanted retribution because of this, Ailine instantly imagine what was going on.
She finally entered the workshop. The word ordinary began to fade away from her mind. Da Speller workshop was a big and dark cold place, all the windows were shut, with only one open, with a rottweiler aside, there were all kinds of esoteric and ritualistic objects hanging on the walls and cadlelights everywhere, all of his tools seemed shiny and new and he had pictures of his bikes all over the walls as if they were family portraits.
"This is Oly" said Da Speller pointing to the dog.
"I don't understand, how you got rob with a dog like that?"
Da Speller approached him and patted him.
"His a good dog, but when he sleeps, only the sound of an explosion can wake him up, isn't that right, you sleepy bastard." Da Speller said with a smile on his face, as the dog enjoyed every little second of his master patting him.
"I guess, he's not that good of a guardian after all." Ailine said.
"He's the only family that I have left!" he said with a loud and firm voice.
"What about your Half brother?" she asked.
"That's a... really difficult relationship, but Oly, well...he has never used me or betrayed me. Dogs are not like humans"
Ailine wanted to know the story of this strange man, he wasn't like any other person he had met before, he was a legend, yet he lived such a miserable and lonely life. It wasn't the first person of another planet that she met, but there was something different about him, something that made him more human than the rest.
"Where are you from?, how did you arrive here?" she asked, hoping to get some background.
Da Speller stopped patting his dog and he head to a small hall at the bottom of the workshop.
"My story is not the main concern here, I'll tell you what the main concern here is, follow me."
She crossed that small hall which lead to a room full of more portraits of motorbikes.
"This is the one" said Da Speller, pointing at a bike portrait on the corner.
Ailine went and saw it. Her suspicions were correct, the bike was the same one as the one that the other biker was riding, the flying bike.
"This one is my latest and greatest design," - he said - "actually, they stole other four bikes, but I don't give a damn about those, THIS is the one that matters, THIS is the one that I need back."
His voice was starting to get more and more insane
"I need you to patrol the entire town, it's possible that they are far away now, but there's still a possibility that they are here and if they are here, I need you to find them, and when you do find them, well" - he scratched his head - "...you know how to handle a gun don't you?"
She just looked at him without saying anything, it seemed that his face had become even more purple. The silence of the conversation lasted about ten seconds.
"If you don't mind, I would like for you to start now!" he screamed.
"I already found your bike." she firmly responded.
"What?...How?...Where?" asked Da Speller while his face was becoming even more purple.
The two of them went outside, where Ailine's bike was parked. She had a big bag in the back of her bike, she took the bag and opened it. Inside, there was the remaining frontal part of the bike that had analyzed before, the one that had the logo of the workshop.
"This is the one, isn't it?" said Ailine as she showed them the tragic piece.
"Where... how... where's the rest?" said Da Speller with tears on his eyes.
"This is all that I could recover, the bike was completely destroyed."
Da Speller face turned white and he instantly fainted.
Two hours passed, Da Speller felt the tongue of Oly licking all of his face, he quickly opened his eyes. They were once again inside the workshop because Ailine and Oly had dragged him there. Da Speller stood up with a terrible headache.
"What happened?" he asked without a clue of what was going on.
Ailine showed him once again the piece of the bike.
"Ohhhh!" said Da Speller with great pain and suffering "Now I remember... you stole and destroyed my baby!" he shouted .
"I didn't do nothing, old man!" screamed Ailine.
"Then how the hell do you posses that, do you even know with who you're dealing with?!"
"Look!" said Ailine trying to remain calm "... Mr. Speller, I will tell you everything, but first I need you to chill out and to stop screaming... and fainting."
Da Speller began to relax a little bit, but he was still quite impatient.
"Ok, go ahead and tell what me happened before I kill you." he said while biting his lips.
Ailine told him the events of the day after, every single detail that she could remember, it was the weirdest personal experience that she had ever told, but Da Speller had to believe it, otherwise he would probably kill her. Ailine's story ended and Da Speller remained silent.
He was touching his chin, thinking every aspect of the story carefully, he didn't seem as angry as before.
"Tell me something - he said, after a few moments of silence - how bad ass did it fly?"
It wasn't the question that Ailine was expecting.
"What?" she asked only to be sure.
"How bad ass did it fly?"
Ailine searched for the appropriate adjective, but there was none.
"Well, sir... I... I don't even have words to describe it."
Da Speller smiled and she could see that he had a few tears left in his eyes.
"Well... - he said, while trying not to cry - I... I guess this bike was to 'I don't even have words to describe it' for this world."
He turned his back, he didn't want to see Ailine no more, it was the first time that a women besides his mother saw him cry and he wanted that nightmare to stop.
"Please, leave the bike... what's rest of the bike here, would you? You can go away, I don't need anyone anymore."
That was the last thing that Ailine was planning to do.
"Aren't you planning to reconstruct it?" Ailine pushed.
"No, not right now, anyway. What kind of freaking idiot decides to go to the summit of that mountain with a stolen bike?" he rambled.
"What? What do you mean by that?" Ailine instantly asked.
Da Speller realized that the girl was still there.
"Would you please leave?"
"No, man! I want to know what the hell are you talking about, I found your bike, I think you owe me that!"
This was the last thing that Da Speller needed at that moment, but she was right, he owed her some sort of explanation.
"Do you really think that it was pure bad luck what made that lightning felt?!" he asked her laughing.
"I don't know, the rider... before he died... he said something about a Godess"
Da Speller put a palm on his face, ashamed of the things that Ailine was saying.
"You're not from around here, are you sweety?"
Ailine was completely amazed, she never thought that any of those stories were truth, she still couldn't believe it.
"So, that means that the legend is true?" she naively asked.
Da Speller answered with another question.
"Who the hell told you it was a legend?"