Events one morning

I've heard the old saying "live fast and leave a good looking corpse" but I never saw anyone really live that type of life until recently and the young guy that did buy the farm left anything but a good looking corpse. Several months ago I had to pull into a convenience store to buy some gas before going to pick Miss Wiggles up from her daycare. This convenience store is close to another of the local hospitals and the traffic around it has increased many times due to the growth of the surrounding areas. This particular hospital is just off the interstate and even with the rebuilding of a wider overpass and better exit and entrance ramps coming off and going on the interstate traffic in the area has hardly improved at all. Driving through the area during the normal morning and evening rush hours requires careful attention to both where you are going and where your fellow commuters think they are going. But traffic accidents still occur on a disturbing frequency causing a good number of people that work in that particular hospital to grimly joke that the traffic flow is the best way to drum up business for them since it happens right outside. Grim humor aside the young and stupid are more than ready to supply as much business as they can handle sometimes, unfortunately in their rush to whatever awaits in the afterlife they tend to affect those wanting no part of their dangerously careless pursuits.

While I was pumping my gas into the starship wondering if a time would ever come when the price would start increasing while gas was being pumped I heard and saw a young guy on some bright red Japanese motorcycle run up into the gas pumps area making a much noise and smoke his riceburner's motor and tires could produce. I have no issue with motorcycles or the people who ride them as long as they don't make a nuisance of themselves. Hell, many times right before I enlisted I would borrow Uncle Paul's little Honda for trips to the beach and other near by spots that I haunted. But to be honest I never felt comfortable on the thing and due to that and its lack of any real showoff power I never did make an ass of myself like this young guy was a couple of pumps over revving the motor and burning up his tires. With as much showmanship as a Hollywood actor the young guy killed the motor and unsaddled the bike. He looked to be in his early twenties, wearing some sort of stylish leather jacket and what really caught my eye was his blue and yellow sneakers. I don't know what brand or even if they were the kind that cost about as much as a second-hand car did back in the 70's but the color just seemed to stand out. The icing on the cake that had me questioning his judgement was that he wore no helmet or from what I could tell he did not even have one attached to some clip that I've noticed some have on the bikes to at least carry a helmet around if not wear one. I had to go inside to get a receipt since the pump failed to print and by the time I was ready to pull out the motorcycle guy was done himself and I was able to see him warp out into traffic and dangerously maneuver around the flowing cars really making a heavy assumption that they would look after him. He disappeared off in the distance and my last thought about him was that he could end up killing himself or someone else someday.

I used the same route going to and from Miss Wiggles daycare many times but over the following months and I never did see the riceburner riding hotshot again till one morning a few weeks ago. Wiggles and I were on our way to her daycare when I noticed that traffic had once again somehow gotten fouled up around the hospital near the interstate. It was stop and go for about forty minutes until I got up next to an intersection in front of the hospital. It was a very bad accident involving two cars and a seriously damaged red Japanese motorcycle. A couple of deputy sheriffs and highway patrolmen were in the area along with an ambulance. You might be able to guess that while I thought the motorcycle looked familiar It was when I saw the covered body sprawled out on the road that I was sure I recognized the rider. Sticking out from the blanket was a pair of blue and yellow colored sneakers. I was close enough to the body as I passed to even notice the sunken portion where a head should have been to give the blanket some shape. Standing close to one of the cars that given the side impact damage visible I'm going to assume was one of the drivers involved in the accident. With just a brief glance that I was able to see she looked very distraught and she just seemed to stare at the covered body in the road. I have no idea of how the accident happened or who might be at fault but given how I saw hotshot fly away from the gas station months before and his recklessly ride through traffic it not hard to guess what might have transpired.

Is there a moral to my narrative? No, just some observations of events and how I going to assume that a stupid young fool not only killed himself but has forever scared someone who more than likely just wanted to get to work safely and on time that day.