Still black.
Now nearly sixty years old.
Sophie noticed.
“Grandpa's?”
“Great-grandpa first.”
“Then Grandpa Daniel.”
“Then me.”
“Then me?”
Eli smiled.
“If you want it someday.”
She stared.
“What if I don't?”
“Then you don't.”
No hesitation.
That mattered.
Sophie nodded.
“Can it be purple?”
Eli almost choked.
Hannah laughed so hard she sat down.
“Absolutely,” she said.
Eli stared at his wife.
“Absolutely not.”
“It's her inheritance.”
“It is not purple.”
Sophie grinned.
“Purple.”
Eli looked toward the ceiling.
“Dad, help.”
No answer.
Probably deserved.
One evening, when Sophie was seven, the motorcycle would not start.
Eli turned the key.
Starter.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Hannah leaned against the garage doorway.
“Problem?”
“Maybe battery.”
Sophie appeared.
“Is it broken?”
“No.”
Eli stopped.
Smiled.
Then corrected himself.
“I don't know.”
He tested battery.
Good.
Checked switch.
Good.
Sophie watched.
“What does Grandpa Daniel say?”
Eli looked at her.
She knew the story.
Of course she did.
But unlike the exaggerated town version, she knew it properly.
A four-year-old saw blue paint.
Adults fixed the problem.
Eli answered:
“Before you blame the machine…”
Sophie finished:
“Check what somebody touched last.”
Hannah raised one hand.
“I touched it.”
Eli turned.
“What?”
“I moved the trickle charger yesterday.”
“Why?”
“Needed the outlet.”
Eli looked down.
Charger lead.
Battery terminal.
Loose.
He stared at Hannah.
She smiled.
“What?”
Eli tightened it.
The motorcycle started.
Sophie screamed with laughter.
“Mom broke Grandpa’s bike!”
Hannah pointed at Eli.
“Your father is the mechanic who didn't check the battery lead first.”
Sophie laughed harder.
Eli shut the bike off.
He leaned against the seat.
Daniel.
Mason.
All of them in one ordinary moment.
No villain.
No police.
No desperate contract.
No betrayal.
Just a loose terminal.
Better.
Much better.
Eli looked at Sophie.
“What did we learn?”
She shouted:
“Mom breaks motorcycles!”
Hannah gasped.
Eli laughed.
“No.”
He crouched beside his daughter.
“We learned the saying isn't magic.”
Sophie frowned.
“What?”