Found in Understanding: Refuge Series Book Three by Debbie Zello (5)

Chapter Five

I was staking tomatoes in the garden when I heard the distant rumbling. I looked up to see no rain clouds above, yet the noise persisted. I looked in the direction it seemed to be coming from and a cloud of dust which was rising from our road.

The reverberating grew louder and much more pronounced. So much so, I could feel it running through my body. My feet tingled and my ears hurt. My sister came running out from the house as the motorcycle came into view.

He pulled to a stop and shut off the motor. Leaning the big, shiny, black bike on its stand he swung his leg over it and stood up. Black leather covered him from foot to neck. Everything fit snugly on his six-foot frame. A silver chain surrounded the ankle of his boots. Another hung from his belt to his knee to his back pocket.

When he turned to catch my sister as she threw herself at him, I saw the back of his jacket. It had a picture of red and yellow flames and the words Hells Brothers, written over and under.

Dove was twenty-one and old enough to know better, still she showed none of the restraint she grew up with. Her arms wrapped around him as well as her legs and she kissed him as if she was trying to save his life with mouth-to-mouth-resuscitation. Her display was revolting, at least to me. Yet there was something about him that drew you to him.

I heard the door shut on Sky’s workroom and I knew the leather man’s interrogation was about to start, so I walked closer. Sky got to them just about the same time as I did. His name was Klutch and he had met my sister at the store. Right, my sister never and I repeat never went to the store.

My eyes narrowed on my sister as she tried to outfox Sky with her snappy explanations. Somehow, I got dragged into the conversation and the next thing I knew I was going for a ride on the monster-bike. I didn’t exactly have to be put on it kicking and screaming. I was a willing participant.

Sky wouldn’t let me ride without a helmet so he left us to find the one he owned. Klutch removed his leather jacket for me to wear as he already figured out that Sky was going to ask. I put it on and his aroma filled my nose and head. Soap, sweat and sandalwood, I think. Intoxicating, whatever it was.

Sky came back with the helmet. As soon as I had it on, Klutch stood the bike up and I got on the back. He said, “Hold on to me and lean when I do. Whatever you do, don’t lean away from the turn. You’ll throw us off balance and we’ll go down.”

“Okay,” I said thrilled and wary at the same time. I placed my arms around his waist as he pulled my legs snugly to him. I swallowed hard and I think he heard it because he chuckled.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” I choked out. The engine started and we began to move. He turned around and we went down the dirt road that connected the ranch to the paved road. Once we were on pavement, I felt him relax. I learned much later that driving a bike on dirt is much the same as a car on ice.

Within five minutes, I was hooked. The freedom of the wind pushing you around and yet keeping you in place. We were not going any faster than in a car but it felt so much faster. Then there was the feel of him I was dealing with too. The first time I have my arms around a man and it’s backwards. A theme that plays out in my life with regularity.

Once he was comfortable with me riding behind him, his left hand came off the handlebar and rested on my knee. It was just for a minute or two but it made me feel beautiful. I’m sure looking back that it was just something he did. However, to me, it was so much more.

When he brought me back ten minutes or so later, I was crushed. He was probably ten years or more, older than me and I was his girlfriend’s gawky little sister. Except that little ten-minute ride changed my life.

I was attracted to biker-boys. Doorags, tattoos, leather and grease puts me in heaven.

I was at the table in the kitchen poring over college applications. I had fliers, pictures of campuses and student descriptions covering the space in front of me. I was balancing my head in my hands, thinking, when Sky walked in and said, “What are you doing?”

“My advisor gave me all of this to look at. They’re colleges she thinks I should apply to.”

“What does Firelight think?”

“She’s confused and overwhelmed with the whole process.”

“Want some help?” he said sitting next to me. I nodded and pushed the papers over to him. He began to look them over and place them in piles. I started smiling, as he seemed to know about them without even looking through the brochures. I looked at the three piles wondering what the deal was with them.

“These are too close,” he said pointing to the first pile. “You will easily get in there and you won’t be challenged. Those aren’t for you.”

“These would be a good choice but I believe you could do better,” he said, placing the second pile on top of the first.” Then he picks up one last brochure and hands it to me. “This is the one. Apply at Yale, you’ll get in with your grades and all you’ve worked for.”

“Getting in and paying for it are two different things, Sky.”

“Trust me. They’ll want you. When they want someone they tend to sweeten the pot with scholarships, grants and anything else they can think of.”

“Plane fare, books, room and board, how can I swing that?”

“I think we can scrape together over the next year and get the plane fare. The rest will come, ‘O ye of little faith.’”

I made out the application and took it back to guidance so they could send my transcript with it. It was the only application I did. My advisor wasn’t happy with me ‘putting all of my eggs in one basket.’ I didn’t feel the need to explain.

I continued to work at the school with the children. They would show me their homework and test papers and I could see vast improvement over the time we were together. I felt so proud of them. Proud too that I had something to do with their improvement.

Shortly after Christmas, I received a letter from Yale. I was granted early acceptance and given a full scholarship including room and board. With the scholarships I had applied for in my community, I was hoping to get enough to pay for books and incidentals. With a job in a fast food place, I would have spending money.

April in Southern California, we transition from 75 and sunny, to 85 and sunny. I walked out to the tall grass and sat down. I love to listen to the birds sing and the grass moving in the breeze. I was already beginning to think about the small amount of time I have left here. Am I going to find somewhere to think like this in Connecticut? I need my safe place.

“What are you doing, Firelight?” I hear Sky say.

“Just thinking. Do you need me?”

“No, I just came to talk,” he said, sitting down next to me. “Everything okay with you?”

“Yeah. I’m just nervous about leaving. I’m worried about being able to get back here,” I said confessing.

“You know that you can always come back. I’m hoping that you don’t, but you can.”

“You don’t want me to come back?” I said confused.

“I want you to find your life, your place in the world. You’re different than the rest of us. You have gifts that we don’t possess. You have fire and light,” he said as if that explained everything.

“I don’t see it that way. Who are you, Sky, that you belong here?”

“Oh Firelight, I don’t speak about my life before the ranch, but for you I will, just this once,” he said sighing with the memories. “I was a chemical engineer with a great job and a career I loved. I was married to the most beautiful woman, inside and out, that I ‘d ever met. Together, we had three-year-old and one-year-old sons.”

“I came home from work one day. I found the house ransacked and my family in the basement. They had been killed by the men that broke in,” he said with tears rolling down his face.

I shifted over to him to hug him. “I’m so sorry,” I said joining him in crying.

“After that, the house, career, and money didn’t matter much. I sold it all and found the ranch for sale. I figured I could live here quietly. I could be at peace and no one would want what I have. It never occurred to me that other people would also be searching for peace and find their way here.”

“I want peace, too. This is my refuge.”

“That’s why you have to leave. You can’t hide out here. This place is for people that can’t make it out there. You can and you will.”

I graduated with a 4.65 average, the highest ever achieved in my school’s history. I spent the summer preparing myself for the inevitability of college three-thousand miles from my hideaway.

I chose to take a bus instead of flying for two reasons. The cost difference and the chance to see more of the country. A week and a half before the start of classes, my parents and Sky drove me to the bus station.

My parents gave me all of the usual advice and hugged me. I was calm and in control until Sky kissed my forehead and said, “If I had a daughter, I hope she would have been like you.”

I cried all the way across the country.