- Continues from Hard Rain, but can be read stand alone:
You flinch, a reflex running from shoulder to toe, awoken, snapped awake. The rain pelting the windows, the wind blustering, rocking the carriage of your camper van, the trees "shhhhhushing" as they sway, and the thunder still rumbling hungry, hundreds, maybe thousands of feet above.
Then you pick it out, your ears stretching into the silence where you hear a man-made rumbling, a burbling sound, an engine, growing slowly louder.
A shaft of crisp white light cuts through the black, and for a moment straight line shadows sweep the ceiling and interior.
The engine noise much clearer now, it's running slow, and not a car, it sounds raspier, throatier; rougher... it's a heavy bike.
Who the hell would be riding in this? You pull yourself up and peer at the small rear window cut into the door of the camper, the pane of glass bright lit and white, illuminated by the oncoming headlamp, but you can't see through the opaque glass, steamed on the inside, soaked in ever running rainwater on the outside.
You push your faux fox fur blanket to one side and stand in your socks, pulling your heavy sweater down to cover the tops of your thighs. You move toward the door and carefully wipe the condensation, with your sleeve bunched in your hand, all the while peering out.
And there you see the single round lamp, with silver streaks of rainwater reflecting up off the slick wet road, as the rider diligently struggles against the buffeting wind and driving rain.
Good god, you think, I would not want to be caught in that, and you prepare to duck down as you anticipate the bike approaching and passing. But no, and your heartbeat quickens as you realize the rider is slowing, pulling over and coming to a rest behind you.
You slowly rise up again to glimpse over the lip, where the window pane sits inside the door, where the cold metal stops and the glass begins, and you almost jump backwards as there at the door stands the silhouette of the rider.
Quickly you duck back down, but you're certain he's seen you. Shit, shit, shit, your mind whirls, I knew I wouldn't be safe here, I knew it, I knew it, goddamn I knew it, over and over you berate yourself, what will I do?
You hear the man's voice, "Hey, you in there?"
What the fuck? Who the hell? You say to yourself. And again he calls out, "Hey, are you there?"
Quick as a fox your mind searches your memory, rifling through an inventory of voices, looking for a match. And your eyes widen impossibly, but it can't be, it couldn't be, for crying out loud he wouldn't know where to find you!
He couldn't, he can't, he's a memory.
Again the rider calls out, and this time you're certain it's him, but that was years ago, ten at least, what the fuck?
Rising up, you look out through the rear window and the rider looks back, his black crash helmet held in his gloved hand, his long hair pulled back, tucked inside his neck gaiter.
He's hunching, ducking down, with the windswept rain lashing against his now exposed face, and you see those impossible features, his warm smile below those dark brown eyes, and while you can't begin to explain any of this, you accept that you do know this man, and somehow, unchanged with time, he is here, tonight, and at your door.
The rider, staring wantonly into your eyes, calls out again, only more gently, "Hey, thank god it's you, can you let me in?"
In a trance you reach forward and release the latch, the door swinging open and outward, the cold wet air rushing in and clenching, goose bumping at your bare legs. You recoil as the rider steps up and carefully clambers in, closing the door securely behind him.
He turns once more to face you, his dark brown eyes alive, their creases crinkling, smiling, beguiling. The brightness coming from his eyes climbing in through the opening of your own, your pupils so wide, hungry for any light in this darkness.
Never a fan of flashlights, you fumble for some matches on the counter top, and striking one you cup your hand to light a simple candle, one you had standing by and ready just in case.
"My god, you're soaked" you say, and the rider pulls his shoulders from inside his heavy black leather jacket and lets the sodden weight slump to the floor at the foot of the camper door.
"Do you have a towel I could use?" he asks, never demanding, but somehow commanding, his voice centered, deep and low, as confident and strong as you always remembered him to be.
"Yeah, sure, of course" you fluster, your mind yelling: why didn't you think of that already? You pull out the only large one you have and hand it over.
"Great, thank you" he says with a warm, genuine and deeply grateful tone.
"I didn't anticipate this" he says, glancing toward the window where the rain continues to sacrifice its seemingly relentless droplet army. His eyes coming back to yours, then pausing, as slowly and deliberately he lowers his gaze, an effortless, approving smile forming, framed inside his rugged jaw, one that speaks openly of his total appreciation for your elegant feminine beauty, ignoring the woolen socks, and admiring your long slender legs and fabulously bare thighs.
His eyes return to yours and his smile widens with total recognition, you haven't fixed each other's gaze in over a decade, and you're not sure how any of this is possible, but you do know that if he wants you, and it seems that well he might, then...
"Would you mind?" he asks openly with a masculine tone that's strikes you as very thoughtful, yet mingled with suggestion and heavier connotation.