“Yeah….”

“Well Shane it was good to talk to you yeah…and thanks for drink….”

“What’s your name friend?’

“Oh how rude of me my name is Joni….my brother Timmo is in race in the harbor …I can’t see which is his boat yeah…but he is in race…”

The girl was showered and dressed. She kissed the back of my neck and thanked me for making her come hard. I nodded as she left.

“Shane you did not care for her?”

“No Joni my new rule in life is not to care about any of them anymore.”

“Your female she hurt you…yeah?”

“Yes she did………… I race…..I love to race….”

“Do you how interesting….what do you race?”

“Motorcycles…super bikes…monster bikes….”

“No kidding?”

“No.”

Joni invited me down to meet his brother Timmo. Timmo introduced me Hans. And I was a member of the New Breed.

The New Breed I would come to find was a death metal racing team. The loved their beer busts, their brawls, their tours of different countries, they loved to burn down churches which was not my scene. There was a part of me that understood where they were coming from. Their anger toward the world. But I didn’t hang with them when they went out and did that.

One night in Amsterdam Joni got into a fight when none of the New Breed were around. I came out of the bar to find him getting beat down by two guys for whatever reason. You would think a guy that tall could handle himself but he couldn’t he was a gentle giant. I went back into the bar got a bar stool and cracked the bigger guy in the head. A scuffle ensued and the New Breed showed up to bail us out of jail. Timmo appointed me his body guard which mean keeping Joni out of trouble and hanging with him and keeping  quiet about him needing me in that way. They didn’t care that I liked to fuck girls and they liked the fact that I was a competent racer who had the touch of stealing. We traveled like this for weeks just backpacking and riding through all these countries connected like states.

Timmo gets killed in a race his ride just goes up in smoke something wrong with his fuel pump or whatever and Hans is the new leader. It all felt familiar but I didn’t say anything. It dawned on me that it has been a year without Carmen again. It dawns on me that I was living so fast that I was forgetting what I was so upset about. So that’s how I wound up at Red Harvest. Drinking absinthe and listing to AEP scream about reprogramming humanity.

I followed Joni to the parked Ducati 1080’s and he is ranting on and on about how Hans wants us to go Germany for some kind of twenty four hour race. He does not bring up his dead brother. I asked him why and he simply told me that his brother is dead and there is nothing more to be said about it.

I put my key in my ignition rev, rev and go and I wonder why can’t I feel that way about Carmen.

Tbc…..