He was sixty-three years old, broad-shouldered, gray-bearded, and weathered by decades of hard work beneath the roofs of garages and on open roads across America.
His hair was cut short and almost completely silver.
A heavy black leather vest rested over his charcoal work shirt, and faded blue jeans covered legs still strong from years of riding.
His hands were scarred.
His knuckles were thick.
A tattoo of a motorcycle wheel decorated one forearm.
And a smaller tattoo, partly faded, sat near his wrist.
Two words.
Ride home.
He had gotten that tattoo almost twenty years earlier, beside a younger rider who had insisted that no journey mattered more than returning to the people waiting for you.
The old biker had laughed at the sentiment then.
He no longer laughed at it.
He was riding home from his repair shop after collecting payment for a complicated engine job.
The customer had paid in cash.
Nine hundred and eighty dollars.
The old man had folded the money into an envelope and placed it inside his vest.
He planned to stop at the grocery store, buy coffee, pick up a few things for dinner, and return to the small house where he lived alone.
It had been a long week.
Two mechanics had called in sick.
An important shipment of parts arrived late.
A customer accused the shop of overcharging him, then apologized after realizing he had misunderstood the invoice.
The old biker wanted a quiet evening.
A hot meal.
A cold drink.
And perhaps a few hours in front of the television before sleep.
Then he noticed the little girl.
She stood at the edge of a neat but modest suburban lawn, holding a pink bicycle nearly as tall as her chest.
Her yellow dress moved slightly in the breeze.
A cardboard sign hung from the handlebars.
FOR SALE.
At first, the old biker smiled.
Children sold things all the time.
Lemonade.
Old toys.
Baseball cards.
Sometimes they were saving for something new.
He remembered buying a glass of lemonade from two neighborhood children the previous summer and paying five dollars for something that tasted mostly like sugar and warm water.