Zac gave Kelsey a kiss.
“Well, I’m going to head on home,” he said.
“Okay,” Kelsey replied, chalking up her cue. “I’ll just finish this game.”
“Okay.”
Zac made his way out the back of Kelsey’s Bar, put on his helmet and sped off home on his motorcycle, Lizzie. And by ‘sped’ we mean went at the legal speed limit of course. He knew the route home almost by heart but forced himself to still keep an eye out. One thing about riding a motorcycle, he couldn’t risk getting ‘into the routine’. Start day dreaming and that’s how accidents happen, moreso on motorcycles when car drivers always insisted that ‘they couldn’t see them’. Weren’t looking more like.
**********
Kelsey finished her game of pool, tucking her winnings into her pocket. She waved to the bartender on her way out. Ahh, the beauty of being the owner meant that she no longer had to lock up. Hurrah!
As Zac did not that long ago, Kelsey put on her helmet and rode off for home on her motorcycle, who was named ‘my baby’ just like every other motorcycle she owned. She had reached the halfway mark when she noticed lots of lights. Huh. Must have been an accident.
Kelsey moved closer, partly to see what was going on, and partly to find away around it. Just her luck to be delayed by some stupid accident. There was one of those annoying four wheel drives (why people drive those in cities and not off-road like they’re designed to, she had no idea) and pieces of... hmmm... that looked like a motorcycle, actually.
Kelsey stopped her bike and put one foot on the road, watching as the paramedics lifted the body of the rider onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. She shook her head and started off again, seeing a way around all the commotion. Stupid four wheel drives. Probably going to use the age old “I didn’t see them!” excuse that all cars drivers used when they smashed into cyclists probably paralysing them for life. Ugh. And who drives four wheel drives in cities anyway? Probably some short, little woman. Psh. Twats.
It was with these disdainful thoughts that Kelsey returned home. She entered the garage and stowed her baby alongside her other babies, and began to head inside when she frowned, and turned back to Zac’s motorcycle collection. Was there one missing?
“Betsy, Betty,” Kelsey named them slowly. “Elly, Nelly, Kelly, Shelly, Beth... Lizzie? Where’s Lizzie?”
Her frowned deepened. Was Lizzie the one that Zac had taken with him today?
Uncertain, Kelsey headed inside. At this hour everyone would be in bed, but Zac had left not long before she did, so he should still be up. She swallowed hard as she started looking around the house for him – for some sign that he had just come home. A sense of worry and panic starting welling up rapidly inside him.
“Ahh!” Kelsey yelped at the sound of the ringing phone.
She took a moment to compose herself, then picked up the receiver with an unsteady hand.
“Hello?”
“Mrs Hanson?”
“Uhh... yes?”
“I’m afraid your husband, Zac Hanson, has been in an accident.”