A Dark And Stormy Night

My blogging buddy Bornfool asked me to contribute a chapter to a story being written by himself and another blogger. So I thought instead of writing a new blog (I don't have an idea for a new one right now anyway), I'd contribute.

The story starts with a woman on her lunchbreak noticing a crowd gathered. Ignoring a call on her cell phone, she approaches on foot and watches a street magician perform his sleight of hand. He entices her to be an assistant and magically makes a quarter appear in her hand. "The quarter is real but just what is reality?" the mysterious man asks. Afterwards, the woman checks her cell phone and plays back a voicemail left by her good friend Karen.

"This changes everything," I thought.


Chapter Three
by Big Dave

Karen’s rotweiler needed an emergency appendectomy. Or something like that. Poor Sluggo. I was the only friend Karen could trust to watch two-year-old Frenchie while she rushed Sluggo to the vet. A quick call to the tap room boss—thank goodness he was understanding—and I hopped aboard my Harley to play traffic dodge-em on Lakeshore Drive.

The lunchtime cafe au lait crowd was a bit more lethargic than usual, or did they just seem that way as I weaved side to side, looking for that clear path to let me throttle up to 50. The speed limit was 40, but I had to chance it.

Maybe it was instinct, or maybe my peripheral vision simply caught the man crossing the busy street at the corner ahead of me. I braked hard, hard enough to lay six feet of rubber and catch the attention of a parking enforcement officer writing a citation for a tour bus.

The pedestrian ignored me, continuing to cross directly in front of me.

"Hea, Mister Lalaland, the light is green," I yelled over the sound of my revving engine.

But when I looked up, I was shocked to find the traffic light was red. Only then did I recognize the pedestrian as the magician who performed the sleight of hand for me downtown.
He turned to me slowly, smiled as if he remembered me, then called out, "Just what is reality?" And he turned back and walked on.

Smart aleck, I thought. More frustrated than annoyed, I pulled that quarter he gave me from out of my pocket and threw it at him. Ordinarily, I throw like the proverbial girl, but this time I nailed the bozo right in the back of the head. I saw him flinch, then turn back towards me, his dark eyes now brimming with anger. No matter. He didn’t have hold of my wrist this time.

"Reality can be a knock in the head," I cried out. Sometimes my mood goes from mousey to witch in less time than he probably takes to saw a woman in half, but I didn’t mean it to sound as hurtful as it probably did. Well, my mood was for a good cause--my friends who were waiting anxiously for me.. I popped a wheelie on my Harley to show him I was a mad woman on a mission. Then I gunned it down Lakeshore Drive.

I had gone only another couple blocks when I realized something was wrong.