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Alone in the vastness of the Mojave, at two o’clock in theat seventy miles per hour, I felt safe and believed that whatever terror ht await me was yet many e life that safety proved to be an illusion

I have a tendency to hope always for the best, even when I’irl’s jury, three-hundred-pound Saot out of that difficult situation alive, pri hold of his beloved porkpie hat, which he considered the source of his good luck When I spun the hat like a Frisbee and he let go of the jump rope to try to snatch his chapeau from the air, I was able to pick up a croquet enitals, which was especially effective because he earing only a thong Always hoping for the best has generally served me well

Anyway, under a full moon, the desert was as eerie as a landscape on an alien planet The great black serpent of highway undulated over a series of low rises and gentle downslopes, through sand flats that glowed faintly, as if radioactive, past sudden thrusting forh in places with quartzite or sohts and flared like veins of fire

In spite of the big athered darkness across its breadth Half-revealed, gnarled shapes of s of other spiky plants bristled and seemed to leap forward as I flew past them, as if they were quick and hostile animals

With its wide-swept fairing and saddlebags, the Big Dog Bulldog Bagger looked like it was made for suburban marrieds, but its fuel-injected, 111-cubic-inch V-twin motor offered all the speed anyone could want When I had been on the interstate, before I had switched to this less-traveled state highway, a quick twist of the throttle shotin front of me Now I cruised at seventy, comfortable in the low deep-pocket seat, the rubber- the vibration to a minimum

Although I wore goggles and a Head Trip carbon-fiber hel Dog’s throaty exhaust roardark, came up behind me and announced itself with a blast of the horn The driver switched on the headlights, which flashed in lance over my shoulder to see that he was nobehemoth at that distance, at that speed

Repeated blasts of the horn suggested the driver ripped by road rage or in the ame of chicken When he tooted shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits, he held the last note too long, and I assured ed in such a cliché and then even lacked the tierous adversary

Earlier, I had learned that the Big Dog’s sweet spot was north of eighty miles an hour and that it was fully rideable at a hundred I twisted the throttle, and the bike gobbled asphalt, leaving the Caddy behind For the moment

This wasn’t the height of bug season in the Mojave, so I didn’t have to eat any moths or hard-shelled beetles when I muttered unpleasantries At that speed, however, because I sat tall and tense with ht air chappedmy cheeks as I bulleted into it

Any responsible der barefaced through this arid wasteland For many reasons, however, there was little chance that I would live to celebrate ed two decades hence didn’t worry me

This ti like so dark once hts, which flared in my mirrors and washed the pavement around me

Closer than fifty feet

The SUV was obviously souped This wasn’t an ordinary ine sounded as if it had co If he intended to run rille—and evidently he did—I wouldn’t be able to outrace whatever custo of the road

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sp; Having tricked up his vehicle with alternate, rammed with pieces of fa-title notes of Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On”

The Big Dog boasted a six-speed transht-side drive pulley allowed better balance and greater control than would the average touring bike The fat 250-ave ree neck rake inspired the confidence to stunt a little even though I was approaching triple-digit speeds

Now he serenaded sain

My one advantage ht be maneuverability I slid lower in the seat, so that the arc of the windshield sent the wind over ressive use of the three-lane highway, executing wide serpentine round, and the Escalade had a ; if the driver tried to stay on ht roll the SUV

Supposing he was s round as I serpentined And with easy calculation, he could intersect me as I swooped from side to side of the road

The third blast of “Louie Louie” assured ht follow me into a pit of fire before he realized what he had done Yet another progranize the tune, though into otten rocker Boy George

When brakes caterwauled, I glanced back to see the Escalade listing, its tires sht to avoid going off the north side of the pavehtaway, I cornered out of the current curve, grateful for the Big Dog’s justly praised Balance Drive, and swooped into the next With another squeal, the Caddy’s tires laid a skin of hot rubber on the blacktop as the driver pulled hard to the left The vehicle nearly skidded off the south shoulder of the roadway, listing again but, as previously, righting itself well before it tipped over

Resorting to his basic horn, the driver made no attempt at a tune this tiht he could sweep me off the bike with sound waves

Recounting this, I ht convey the ihout the pursuit, but in fact I feared that, at anyworn an adult diaper

In spite of whatever drugs or beverages had pushed the SUV driver’s CRAZY button and filled hih reason to realize that if he continued to followdown the center of the three lanes, he regained the ground that he’d lost, intending to intersectcurves of my flatland slalom