Authors: L.A. Pierson
What to do now that the others had taken off? Well, Georgie and Charlie had the world at their feet. The next day after a long, lazy morning in the motel bedroom, they got on the bike once more and Charlie started to show her his world.
“I want you to see everything I’ve seen,” he told her enthusiastically. “Then you’ll understand.”
It wasn’t necessary. Georgie already understood why Charlie loved this lifestyle so much, but then again, maybe it wasn’t the lifestyle that Georgie was attracted to, but just Charlie himself. He’d been a little quiet after the fight at the bar, but after their night together when their relationship had reached a new level of intimacy, he seemed to have softened and seen the bright side of the situation. His pack was gone, but it meant that he and Georgie had the open road all to themselves.
Georgie quickly found herself falling in love with Charlie as she saw dozens of sunsets on hilly peaks with his arms around her and laid down to sleep with her head on his chest night after night and after just a couple of weeks her old life began to feel like a distant memory and like the past of another girl.
This Georgie was someone new. She laughed more often, she doubted herself less and she couldn’t wait to wake up each morning. True to Charlie’s words, her muscles soon became used to the exertion of riding and those aches and pains vanished away and the longer she spent with him, the less she cared about all she’d left behind.
They spent three weeks touring the highways and hillsides of America before Georgie knew that she had to wake up from the dream and figure out what she was going to do with her life now. She still had rent to pay for an apartment she wasn’t living in and her savings had dwindled to almost nothing. She couldn’t afford a carefree life of motels and diners without a job. One night, sitting on a bench in the gentle light of another glorious sunset, Georgie looked up at Charlie with an aching in her heart and told him she had to go.
“It’s been wonderful, Charlie, but I can’t stay with you. I’ve got no money left, my parents are probably worried sick and all my stuff is in my apartment. I need to go back to normality and deal with all those things I left behind.”
“Why do you have to?” Charlie demanded. “Don’t you like being on the road with me?”
“Of course I do, but this isn’t real life. I’ve still got responsibilities back home waiting for me.”
Charlie’s expression became sullen. He removed his arm from around her and leaned forward on his knees with a brooding expression. Georgie could understand why he was angry. He’d stuck up for her when everyone had been bad mouthing her and now she was going to leave him on his own. She put a hand on his back gently.
“I don’t want to leave you. I wish there was a way for me to stay with you out here, but there’s still so much left for me to figure out.”
“And what about me?”
“Come with me,” Georgie urged. “Come back with me to Darton. Stay in my apartment. It’ll take some time, but as soon as I figure something out, we can carry on where we left off.”
“How’s that going to happen?” Charlie huffed. “Sorting yourself out means finding another job and as soon as that happens you’re tied down and then that’s it. You’ll be gone.”
Georgie fell silent for a moment. She didn’t know what to say. Of course she wanted to stay with him on the road - forever, if she could - but reality was calling to her and she couldn’t indulge in her fantasy any more.
“I have to go home, Charlie.”
Charlie didn’t waste any time. Whether he was hurt or just frustrated, Georgie didn’t know, but that very night when she hopped on the back of his bike, he began to drive them back towards Darton. The next few nights spent in motel rooms on the return journey were far removed from the romantic, honeymoon-like nights they’d shared before. Now Charlie was angry with her and distant because he didn’t want her to go, but Georgie couldn’t be with him on the road until she’d found a way to completely cut ties with her old life and also a way to support herself without a steady nine-to-five job. She wasn’t a bulky, muscle-bound biker who could repair a roof for a free night here and there. She couldn’t work the winter as a bouncer to earn her keep through the summer. What would she do in those long, cold months when the wheels came to a still and Charlie was out at work?
Finally, they arrived back in Darton and when Charlie dropped Georgie off back at her apartment, he was still angry and sullen. Georgie felt tearful at his hostility and tried to break down his walls.
“Please don’t be angry with me, Charlie,” she begged. “You must have known it couldn’t last. I don’t want you to leave. Stay with me until I find a way. I’ll find a way. I promise.”
Charlie simply shook his head. “I’m not like that, Georgie. I don’t want to work in an office and have a little house with shutters at the window and a picket fence. I’m just not made that way. I wouldn’t be happy and neither would you. I’ve been roaming too long to ever stay in one place now. I thought you understood that. I thought you were looking for an adventure too.”
“I
am
, Charlie,” Georgie insisted. “I just can’t go off on any adventures until I’ve finished the lease on my apartment and paid off my bills and sold my car and put my furniture into storage...It’s easy enough to live out of a backpack when that’s all you’ve ever had, but I have to find a way to put all this aside if I want to be with you. Stay here with me, Charlie. It’s not a trap. One day we’ll hit the road again.”
The biker gave a desolate shrug and looked at her with disappointed eyes. “I just don’t think that’s true. You know, I’ve met so many girls on the road. I really thought you were different. Not just a passenger, but a partner. But maybe Charlene was right - you were just slumming it for a while. You never really cared about me.”
“How can you say that? Don’t you know how I feel about you?”
Charlie simply gave her a blank stare and said his final goodbye. “Stay away from Mickey,” he advised. “He’ll make your life difficult if you get under his feet. Good luck, Georgie.”
With that, he was gone and all Georgie’s hopes and dreams with him. She threw herself down onto her bed and sobbed because she couldn’t believe that after the whirlwind romance they’d shared and the things he’d done for her, Charlie could just walk away. Why was he so scared? He acted like she wanted to entrap him in a dull, ordinary family life, when all she wanted was a little time to figure herself out.
It took her a long time to pick herself up and brush herself down and then she took a moment to write another blog post where she poured her heart out to her readership, which had grown to almost five hundred subscribers in just under a month.
...
Charlie’s gone. He never had to choose between me and the road, but he chose the road anyway. I suppose that’s at the heart of what it means to be a biker, though. They’re just like wild animals. Dangerous and adventurous, but scared of being trapped
.
Once she’d pressed
publish
, Georgie dried her eyes once more and scowled at her reflection as she passed the mirror and caught sight of herself in the leathers that Charlie had bought her. She felt she saw now what Charlene had seen - a wannabe. She remembered how sexy she’d felt when she’d first rolled that soft leather over her thighs, but now she felt ridiculous because all of that adventure and romance had come to such a sharp and sudden end. She took off her leathers and threw them into the bottom of the closet, kicking them as far back as possible so that it wouldn’t break her heart every time she looked at them.
The truth was, running off with Charlie may have been an impulsive act after a bad day, but the way she felt about him was anything but a passing phase. In all her life, she’d never felt as beautiful, secure or as comfortable with whom she was as when she was with him. It was like her whole life the real Georgie had been buried deep down behind the mask of herself that she presented to the world to fit in with the high standards and narrow minds of small-town people, but really, she had the spirit of a biker - she wanted to be moving and discovering and inherently free.
So now, here she was, unemployed and alone again. The only risk she’d ever taken in her dull, predictable life had ended just as quickly as it had begun.
*****
Three days passed. Georgie found it hard at first not to give into the temptation to walk around in her pajamas and ignore the whole world, but she decided that even though Charlie was gone, she wanted the new Georgie to stay and the new Georgie wasn’t someone who gave in that easily. She began to start looking for new jobs, telling herself that she was better than she gave herself credit for and applying for the sort of positions she’d shied away from before.
Every day when she was writing her blog post, she half-expected to find Charlie standing there behind her with a towel around his waist and eyes begging her to follow him to the bedroom, but he was gone. She missed him more than she could ever possibly imagine missing anyone who had come and gone so quickly. She’d known the moment she’d met him that she’d never be the same, but she hadn’t expected to feel this different without him.
On the third day without him, Georgie got herself up and ready and prepared to face the day. She was about to head into the town to pick up a paper and look for job postings and scoff at Lucy’s articles, but, as she pulled open the door of her apartment to go outside, she gasped in shock.
There was Charlie. He looked a little sorrowful and a little penitent too, hanging his head with his helmet swinging from one hand and his eyes apologetic. He looked up when she opened the door and his lips formed a soft, almost shy smile.
“Charlie!” Georgie exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“I was riding,” he told her, “but something just felt wrong. I went all the way to the edge of the state, thinking I’d be able to ride on and forget about you, but it was like there was something inside me begging me to turn around, telling me that I was being a fool. I don’t want to settle down, Georgie. I don’t want a lawn and 2.5 kids. I want to be out there on the road and I’m terrified that making a commitment to someone who doesn’t know where she’s headed is going to leave me trapped in a life that I don’t want, but damn it, Georgie, I miss you.”
Happy tears sprung to Georgie’s eyes and she threw her arms around his neck. “I missed you, too. Does this mean you’ll stay?”
The biker nodded slowly. “I don’t want to set off again until you’re riding with me.”
All over again, Georgie’s life was turned upside down and she felt almost delirious with how happy she was to have him back. That night they made love for hours and in the morning, Georgie felt giddy from how happy it made her to turn over and see that he was still there and to know that he would be the next night and the night after that.
Of course, she knew it wasn’t easy for Charlie. She could sense his agitation and his restlessness within days of him staying with her. He wandered around the inside of her apartment like a tiger in a cage and took long bike rides around the outskirts of the town while she continued to search for jobs that would allow her to somehow take off again with Charlie, but it was no easy task. Then there was everything else to figure out, like her apartment and her furniture and everything else...The weeks rolled by and Georgie began to feel guilty to see the effect it was having on Charlie to be stuck in one place for what must have felt like an unbearably long time to someone who had been on the move since he was sixteen.
“You should go,” she told him one day with a slight tremble in her voice because the thought upset her so much. “I have your number. If anything changes I could call. You’re not happy here and you’re going to end up resenting me.”
Charlie put his arm around her shoulders and shook his head. “Impossible, doll. I trust you. I know you’ll sort something out. I told you I’d wait for you, didn’t I?”
Georgie was so thankful for his patience, but it didn’t make her own guilt any easier to bear. She began to feel like a failure as day after day nothing turned up, but she tried to make it up to Charlie with hearty home-cooked meals, long romantic bike rides to the lookout point and by showing her appreciation between the sheets. He enjoyed all of these gestures and thanked her for them, but Georgie could tell that his heart was still on the road.
Then, suddenly, everything changed once again. Georgie was sitting at her computer screen once more when a notification that a new email had arrived caught her attention and she opened up her inbox. In the subject line, she could see that the message was from Bob Raymond and she almost put the message into the spam folder, except she had a feeling that she knew that name.
Bob Raymond, Bob Raymond...Why did that sound so familiar? Suddenly it clicked and Georgie felt her heart skip a beat from anticipation. Bob Raymond was the editor of
Biker’s World
magazine. She’d sent him her resume and a link to her new life-on-the-road blog back when she’d only been with Charlie a couple of weeks and had only just reached 200 subscribers. She bit down on her lip nervously, looked over her shoulder to check that Charlie wasn’t nearby and then opened the email.
Dear Georgina,
Thank you for your email and for your interest in writing for
Biker’s World.
Having read the posts that you sent me, I do feel that your writing style and unique perspective could have a place in our magazine and I’d be very interested in speaking to you further and seeing more samples of your work. Please give me a call on the number below to arrange further discussions.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Raymond
“Charlie! Charlie!” Georgie yelped, jumping up from her chair and running into the bedroom to try and find him.
“What is it?”
“I’ve just had an email from Bob Raymond. He’s the editor of a biker magazine. He likes my blog and wants to speak to me about writing for him!”
A big grin spread across Charlie’s face and relief also. Maybe this was the news that they’d both been waiting for - a way to get out of here and hit the road together again.
“Well, what are you waiting for, doll? Get him on the phone!”
Georgie picked up her cell and dialed the number on the screen. She sat on the sofa with Charlie behind her eagerly holding her hand and listening in and began to speak to the editor.
“...Yes...thank you, Mr. Raymond...Oh, anything really, I’m willing to start from the bottom....You liked my voice and the blog style posts? I’m so glad...Are you serious?
Weekly
? And articles? Yes. Yes. Thank you! Yes, I’ll confirm. I look forward to receiving that. Thank you!”
Georgie put the phone down and Charlie fixed her with an expectant stare. “Well? Come on, doll, don’t keep me in suspense!”
The writer felt tears welling up in her eyes from relief, joy and pride. “He says he loves my writing style and my blog posts,” she told him with a happy laugh and just a few tears. “He wants to try me out as a columnist with weekly columns and articles about some of the places I find myself on the road. He’s willing to keep me on payroll on a monthly salary. He says I can write my first post this week and we’ll do a four-month trial.”
“Georgie, that’s fantastic!”
“I can’t believe it!”
That night they celebrated. They wanted to stay away from Mickey’s Bar and so headed out of town for a wonderful dinner and champagne. From there, everything went so quickly. Georgie got in touch with her landlord and it was agreed that she would end her lease at the end of the month. In the meantime, she began selling all her furniture online.
“I didn’t realize I had so much stuff!” she giggled. “I’ve made enough just from selling all my furniture to put some money aside in case the columnist position falls through. Charlie, I’m so relieved!”
“It’s not going to fall through. You’re an amazing writer and we’re going to have an incredible time. I’ll make sure you have things to write about.”
Barely less than two weeks later, Georgie’s apartment was empty, her bank account slightly more full and a single bag packed. Those leathers which had been thrown into the bottom of the wardrobe to save her from feeling broken-hearted were pulled out again in celebration and when Georgie pulled them on again, it felt like saying hello to an old friend.
She didn’t even look back when she locked her apartment door behind her for the final time and she felt a gleeful thrill run through her when she dropped off the key with her landlord. There was nothing tying her down now. It was funny how she’d always thought of home as a place -walls, rooms, curtains - but now she thought of home as a person. Wherever Charlie was - that was her home.
Georgie and Charlie made plans to travel around the states with what was left of the summer. From Iowa they went to Illinois and then Indiana. From Ohio they went to West Virginia and then North Carolina. For a small town girl who’d never seen much of the world, Georgie felt like she’d been born to see it all and the constant flurry of different towns and different faces felt like second nature to her.
They never did see Charlie’s original gang again, but he never brought it up. Georgie didn’t know if he ever missed them or had moments of regret for chatting up a nosy journalist in a biker bar in Darton or if he ever thought wistfully back to when he was free and single and able to hook up with every girl along the way. If he ever had those thoughts, he never let them show. In fact, Georgie never felt anything less than his whole world. Charlie had become her home and she had become his pack and they were enough for each other.
Georgie’s column went down a storm with the magazine’s readers. Apparently the wives and girlfriends of the bikers loved a story from a woman’s perspective and how she picked up and commented on the things that women notice, like the inconvenience of your make-up smearing when you pull your helmet on over your face, or how you had to keep your nails short to be able to wear your gloves. They liked her frank and honest style of writing, where she described everything she saw and felt without embellishment or disguise, but simply told it as it was - the good, the bad and the sexy.
The weeks on the road turned into months and then when the summer came to an end, she and Charlie spent the winter in a little town in Georgia, where Charlie worked security at a college campus and Georgie wrote articles on the other side of biker life, away from the road. Then, when the snow melted away and the flowers came up once more, they were gone again, finding new roads to travel.
The traveling was wonderful and so was having a writing career where Georgie had her own voice, but more amazing than anything was the love that grew between her and Charlie as the weeks became months, and the months become years. Who would have thought that Lucy, as stern and conservative as she was, would have been the very one to send Georgie on the adventure of a lifetime? Charlie and Georgie laughed about it when they reminisced with the new friends and old as they spent the years crossing the country and even going overseas for a spell.
Charlie had always said that he would never leave the road, but, as they grew older, his restless nature came to a still and the two did find themselves with those shuttered windows and little picket fence. They stayed in one place as they built new careers, raised their children and grew old together, but the love for the roar of an engine and the feel of leather on skin never left them. Whenever there was a warm evening with the promise of a beautiful night, the two would hop onto that old bike together and ride off into the sunset once again.
THE END