Choices

Slipping his boot under the primary and kicking out the side stand. Beowulf leaned back and let his head rest on the sissy bar pad. stretching his dusty boots over the handlebars he reached into his vest for a lighter and a smoke. A momentary flame flashed in the darkness and settled into a glowing ember. Folding his arms across his chest he gazed out over the valley below.

The flickering lights in the darkness were covering the entire horizon. looking up to the night sky the stars reflected the scene below almost seamlessly.

The last time Beowulf sat on this overlook the amber glow of streetlights and few ranch house lights could be counted in the fingers of one hand.

Flicking his smoke out over the cliffs edge.
Beowulf announced quietly to the crisp air
" It's time"



Kicking the old 56 panhead to life and letting it settle to rhythmic idle, he pulled the clutch lever, snicked into gear and rode down the long twisting road down into town

Beowulf brought the pan to a stop in front of the old town square. Turning the key brought an abrupt silence that echoed the solitude.

Feeling a little like he had stepped into old Twilight Zone episode Beowulf half expected Rod Serling to appear and start narrating the scene. Walking over to the memorial of the fallen war dead he thought about the many people he 'd known over the years who had passed. No monument on the square remembered them. all those lives had faded to infinity except in the Psyche of those who once knew them.

Many had held out for so long doing the 'Right thing' and most often they would rebel later in life having what most termed a midlife crisis. Beowulf saw that when they did..it was almost always the same. people try to get back to where they once had been, full of adventure and taking chances the straights never could. They always said the same cliche. 'I'm getting my life back'

Often with disastrous results, family's torn apart, lives work ruined.But in rare cases freedom of soul had been reborn and a life becomes more then the sum of it's parts. Many follow the path that had been their first love. Get a bike a join a brotherhood that really does care for it's own.

Others too constrained to change end up broken and dejected.
And end up shuffling through life waiting for the end. This ,still is considered being honorable. fall in line and the rewards will soon follow, just discard those silly childhood notions of freedom. They don't get you ahead in life.

From where Beowulf stood he didn't see much living going on, just a lot of folks being slowly crushed to obscurity.

None of what he saw in town was "Life', just motions.

Getting back on the pan he fired her life and rolled to long overdue meeting he had arrived in town for.


Rolling up the old homestead Beowulf saw his father sitting on the same porch chair he had been in thirty years ago when He'd had the fight with his old man and left for good.


' Hello son' spoke the grizzled old man. 'I'm glad you decided to come when I called, you were not a easy man to find'


'I got the message Pop. All you had to do was call the right people, they always know where I am. They always have my back'


The old man just stared at Beowulf as if to peel away the years. 'I called you here to apologize'

'For what? replied Beowulf.

'For misjudging you all those years ago.' I looked back over my life and re-assessed my priority's, and I see that they were misguided.

I wasn't living a well lived life, I was going through the motions and I finally understand the child can teach the father. You had it right all along. Be true to yourself before you can be true to others.

'What brought about this sudden change of Heart?'

'I have witnessed a crime. One I have seen all my life and yet never really saw. I find I am guilty of it also'


'What the hell are you rambling on about? Beowulf responded while thinking maybe the old man had finally lost his senses.


'I'm talking about the theft if innocence,wonder and imagination. Too many young ones lose theirs far too early. Some to abuse mental and pyhsical. others lose to crushed dreams. I never understood till now in my autumn years why you fought so hard to resist conformity. I finally understand.

Is it too late to repair the damage I've done in our relationship Son?

Beowulf studied the old man for a while. he found he could read the honest simple sincerity in the worn weather beaten furrows of his face.

Mounting the steps to the porch Beowulf reached for the adjioning chair and responded

'Dad, Pop open a couple of cold ones, We got some years to get back'.



Happy Fathers Day Lief H Nelson.
Glad we were finally able to get those memories back.

Big Daddy Caveman.