Chapter 6

I sat holding my cup of coffee in the otherwise deserted cafe, waiting for Eliza to get back from the restroom, and thought about this and that.

It was taking a little getting used to, to get used to Andre's Monster Bike- The extended front fork, and dual backrest, and swept handlebar invited, nay, insisted on a reclined, and very comfortable posture. I could stay in the saddle in this position for hours! The one drawback, was due to Andre's longer arms- I was actualy unable to ride the bike at all, until I used some tools from the small but capacitous panier. (Eliza said it was a 'pocket dimention' and that anything I needed would be in there, right at my fingertips. She was right, and as it was self-sorting, I took to just grabbing blindly for whatever I needed, and throwing it back in when I was done.) I had to shorten the handlebars down into the fork to the last setting, and then reverse the sweep of the bars so that instead of a goat horn sweep, they had a cow horn sweep. After I moved the control levers to the bottom part of the curve, I could reach them fairly comfortably. I adjusted the seat back pinion to the forwardmost adjustment, and it worked fine, if looked slightly rediculous. However, the bike exuded so much power and menace, with its red and orange flames and shiny chrome, that I doubt anyone would notice the minor details. I would have to adjust things a bit more to gain natural control of the foot controls, but it was fine for cruzing, as long as I didn't have to constantly be shifting gears. The ease of which that 'iron' pushed down the road made it feel like a magic carpet, and the back pinion made the crushing acceleration comfortable, with no extranious thoughts of losing the grip of the handlebar and flying off of the back end. Eliza returned at the same time as the bored waitress, and as Eliza slid into the booth, the waitress asked if we would like to order any food as she refilled my coffee, and gave Eliza the unavoidable 'top up' to replace the two swallows she had taken before going to the lady's room. I allowed that I could eat something, and glanced at Eliza with her nose burried in the menu, and started to order to give her time to decide.

"I'll have two pieces of butter-fried toast, egg in pocket, pocket holes on the side, no butter. Also, if you have a fresh danish, or better, a bears-claw, that would be great." Eliza looked up, and ordered a 2X2, over medium, with blueberry syrup and a bottle of tabasco sauce. I ordered a side of crispy hash browns as well, and then the waitress left, and we finaly had time to talk. Instead, we spent some time just looking at eachother, and occasionaly sipping our coffee.