An Excerpt from My Soul to Keep
The show was over, the balloons had risen, and the
landscape was a dull brown with floating toys above us.
The surprise was gone, the package opened, but it was a
beautiful sight forever burned into memory. We walked
back to his motorcycle and I picked up the helmet with
duct tape crisscrossed against the visor.
“You’ll have to take it off if you want to see.” He
got on his motorcycle and revved it up.
Guess the
romantic moment just ended.
With all this newfound
trust and faith, I decided to put my life in his hands and
hooked the helmet on the back of his Harley. Then I
heard the best words ever. “Let’s ride.”
We thundered out of the parking lot and on to the
highway headed north. The New Mexico landscape
rushed around us in waves of sand-colored houses and
blue green sage. I was a child again, letting the
neighborhood boy push the merry-go-round as I lay on
the surface and watched the clouds spin into circles.
Purplish-blue mountains passed by and all the trees
were an artist’s palette of color. The world zoomed past
in a flash as I was holding on for dear life.