Page 3 of Merry Merry Biker
I wondered what he was thinking while he watched me. I was dressed in my elf costume, having helped Santa give out presents earlier today at the yearly village Christmas gift giving. It had been started last year by the teenagers of the Crows and had continued this year. Knowing how much I loved Christmas, they’d roped me in to help. We’d had loads of fun and the kids had left happy after each of them getting a present from Father Christmas.
Trying not to be obvious about it, I continued to sweep. I watched the biker from under my lashes. He was sat so still on his bike waiting for the lights to turn green. A dark silhouette in an otherwise brightly lit street, dressed in all black with his helmet obscuring his eyes. A little shiver ran down my spine; he was a little intimidating, even from this distance.
That didn’t stop me from peeking at him every now and then, though. There was something about him that called to me, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. My body hummed and there was a warm tingle in my belly as if I could feel his touch, even though he was on the other side of the road to me. When the lights turned green, my gaze followed him as he slowly drove by, he dipped his head slightly as he rode past where I stood silhouetted in the window and then he was gone, disappearing into the darkness as if he’d been part of my imagination.
Shrugging off my fantasies about the lone biker, I hurried to finish the cleaning so I could lock up and get home. There was a pot of stew and dumplings waiting for me in the slow cooker, and I had a night planned of watching some of my favourite Christmas movies. Locking up and setting the alarm, I hurried to my car. It wasn’t anything special, just a regular Ford Focus, but I’d opted for an Estate rather than a regular hatchback when I’dbought it as I knew I’d need space to load anything I bought for my house refurbishment.
My teeth were chattering, and I was shivering as I got in and started the engine, waiting for her to warm up and the heat to start circulating. Pointing the vents towards me, I sighed in bliss as the heat started to wend its way around me.
Turning the volume up on my Christmas tunes just as Fairy Tale of New York started on the radio. It was one of my favourites, and I boogied and sang along as I put my car in gear and drove out onto the main road in the same direction that the biker had gone.
There wasn’t a car in sight as I drove down the road singing away with nobody to hear me or to complain about my out-of-tune voice. I’m well aware that I sound like a wailing cat when I sing, but that doesn’t stop me from doing it. And certainly not when it comes to Christmas songs. As I come around the corner, I hurriedly slam on my brakes in an emergency stop when I see a bike lying in the middle of the road. The emergency braking has my back-end skidding slightly on what I’m assuming is black ice. We’d had warnings earlier on the radio to be careful of it while driving. Instantly, I recognise the bike as the one that my mysterious rider had been sitting on.
Slapping my hand down on the button for my hazard lights, I shakily push the release button on my seatbelt so that I can get out of my car. All the while wondering where the biker is. Getting out, I pull my coat tighter around me just as snow starts to slowly fall from the sky.
“Oh, no,” I whisper as I get to the bike and see he’s not lying anywhere near it. “Where are you?” I wonder aloud. Looking up and down the road. Just at the edge of where my headlights stop, I think I see something shiny at the edge of the road. Hurryingtowards what I hope is the biker, all the time I’m chanting out loud, “Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.” I see his leg move as I get closer and the chant changes to, “Don’t let there be blood, don’t let there be blood.”
It won’t do for the both of us to be passed out on the side of the road if I see any blood.
Falling to my knees on the road next to him, my training kicks in and I run my hands up and downs his arms and legs to see if anything’s broken. I don’t take off his helmet just yet as I know it may still be protecting him.
Keeping up the litany of words as my training comes back to me as I assess him, cataloguing any injuries that I can see. Once I’m assured that none of his limbs are broken, I move to his head and open the visor. Startling slightly when I see bright blue eyes peering up at me. He was awake and I could see that he was in pain from the lines bracketing his face and the way he’s clenched his lips closed.
Wanting to reassure him, I speak softly, “Hey, I’m calling an ambulance, but as were in the middle of nowhere, it may be a while before they get here. I can’t find anything broken, but I’m not sure if you have any internal injuries or damage to your back.”
He took me aback when he insisted that he not go to a hospital and then proceeded to make me promise that I wouldn’t take him. Making me wonder what he was running from. He was adamant, though, that he does not go to a hospital, and something told me that whatever it was he was running from, he was no danger to me, so I promised.
“Okay, okay,” I promised shakily as he closed his eyes again. “No hospital. Do you have a name?”
“Tommy, Sprite, name’s Tommy.”
Then he was out like a light again.
“Fuck,” I whispered hoarsely as I hurried back to my car and got a tarp out of the back of it. I wasn’t going to be able to pick him up, and the only way I was going to get a man his size into my car was to drag him up. Luckily, I still had the ramp that I’d used when I loaded the cement last week.
Laying the tarp on the ground next to him, I manoeuvred him into the recovery position, hoping against hope that he didn’t have any internal injuries. He most definitely had a concussion, though, and I was worried about what other damage he had to his head.
But I’d made a promise, and I always kept my promises. I just hoped this one didn’t come back to bite me on the arse.
Once I had him on his side, I pulled the tarp until it was as far under him as it could go, then I laid him back down on it. Rushing back to my car, I put it in gear and drove it closer to him, opening up the boot and setting up the ramp before proceeding to try and pull him into my car.
It felt like a lifetime but eventually many long, sweaty, and heart pounding minutes later, I had him in the back of the car and not once had he opened his eyes during all this time. I wasn’t sure if I should be worried or happy that I managed to manoeuvre him without causing him too much pain. Covering him with the blanket I always carried in my car, I got out and went to the bike that was still in the middle of the road. I knew I couldn’t leave it there because it was a hazard. Opening his saddlebags, I saw they were filled with personal effects. Taking them off the bike, I took them back to my car and set them on the front seat. He’d need a change of clothing once he was back up and on his feet.
Walking back down the road to the bike, I tried to pick it up, but it was so freaking heavy. Eventually, just as I was thinking I wasgoing to have to leave it, I made one last ditch effort and got it up on its wheels and pushed it towards the ditch at the side of the road, where I let go and had gravity do its job, cringing a little at the further damage I’d done to it.
‘Ah, well, not much I could do about it now,’I thought, dusting my hands off and jogging back to my car. Checking on the biker once more, I noted that he hadn’t moved. Checking his pulse quickly, inhaling a relieved breath when I find it’s steady.
Cranking up the heat and turning down the Christmas music so that I could hear him if he made a noise, I drove us slowly home, hands still shaking slightly and heart pounding. I’ve never been so relieved to see my house. Reversing up to the front door, I switched off the car. Taking a deep breath to try and steady myself before flinging open the door to get out. Hurrying to unlock my front door, I’m wondering about where the best place to put him would be once I managed to get him in the house.
Starting a fire in the small pot belly fireplace I’d installed in the living room, I decided that it would be better to have him closer to the kitchen and the bathroom, so having him on a mattress on the floor in front of the fire would be the best thing.
Rushing to what was eventually going to be my spare room to get the mattress from the guest bed. It was lucky that I’d finished decorating this bedroom last weekend and had lugged my spare bed and mattress over last Sunday, intending to set it up this week. Taking hold of the mattress that was leaning against the wall, I pulled and tugged on it to get it moving towards the living room.
Laying it down near the fire, I put a plastic cover over the top to protect it, then added a fitted sheet. Going to my bedroom, I got my larger first aid box and brought it back to the livingroom with me. One thing about training as both a nurse and a paramedic, I had a first aid box suitable for an apocalypse.
Once I had the living room set up and somewhere to bring him, I went back to the car and opened up the boot. Setting up the ramp again, I took hold of the tarp and tugged and pulled as I moved him into the house in the reverse of how I’d got him into the car, but at least it was easier to manoeuvre him down rather than up.
Puffing and panting for the second time that night, I vowed to make use of my free gym membership the MC offered to its staff in the new year.