Their relationship began and ended with an accident.
He stepped off the curb on the main street in Corvallis, Or. on a warm breezy summer evening, just a few moon cycles from his 19th birthday. He stepped of this curb with his mind wide open and evidently, his eyes wide shut. The six pack of Coors in the paper sack cushioned his fall, as he look up at the girl on the bicycle, lying in a heap on top of him. She was not happy about it.
After straightening out the wire basket on the front and picking up the pieces of broken tail reflector from the rear, they finally agreed that the loss beer was the most significant loss. While sharing a few new ones in a local joint, she decided she wanted to hitch with him to the beach tomorrow, about an hours’ drive away.
The day was as he hoped, sunshine, waves, rocks, large trunks of driftwood, on a pine tree lined beach. Yet there was something unusual about the girl, and he kept a little distance until he could understand it better.
The drive back was unusual as well. They were offered and accepted a ride from a guy in an El Camino. He was headed to Corvallis from California for a best friend’s wedding. He listened to this dude for the full hour going on about all the bad things that had happened in his life as of late. And now, this dude's best friend was marrying his old and only girlfriend whom he still loved, but would have nothing to do with, mainly because he had given her the equivalent of herpes after returning from the army and a stint in South East Asia.
As they approached the exit, the exit that would finally allow them to climb out from this cramped cab of misery, he was busy thanking the dude, she had not spoken a word since entering, and the vehicle stopped on the side of the ramp. H remembers opening the large door with his right arm while still looking at the dude and thanking him for letting us have our freedom back, when he glanced back at the door and all he saw was the front bumper of a Ford pickup truck. He pulled his arm back just in……
A moment later they were all three starring at the large door of the El Camino spinning around and around out in the middle of the exit ramp. The dude started banging his head against the steering wheel. The girl freaked and climbed out over him and literally ran up the grassy ramp slope and disappeared.
He consoled the dude as they roped the door oddly in place and drove to the police station to fill out an accident report. He never saw the girl again. Oh well, it had all been an unfortunate accident anyway.
