Lime Green Punch (True Story)

I wanted to get to the lumber yard early. So I drove through the morning fog toward a nearby town.There was a big red sun in my rear view mirror. It was so big and glowing as to almost drive me off the road while looking backward at it on the horizon.Columbia was a sleepy little town when I hit the main drag. I obediently eased up to a stop light at a completely deserted intersection. It felt ridiculous to stop, nothing in this town was moving yet. I was mostly alone on an empty street.

I glanced up to my rear view mirror, and suddenly saw a motorcycle coming toward me, and moving like a bat out of hell. I was mesmerized, because it looked like he was going to run the light and blow by me at full throttle. But he came to an abrupt halt in the lane next to me. He was a big muscular guy in a black t-shirt. He remained bent forward and low over his machine. The bike was sleek and low to the ground and had big fat tires. It was a shiny, vicious lime green. I glanced over at him several times as we waited for the light to change, but he didn't look my way. His eyes were fixed on the deserted highway ahead of us. He was bent low over his gas tank, practically laying down on it. His right hand kept racing the throttle. Ahead of us was a railroad trestle the highway passed under. The light turned green. He punched it, and was gone! Before I could even let the clutch out, he was through the tunnel.

But this is the thing. Just before he ripped through the tunnel, a backpack behind him flew open. And just as I shifted into 2nd gear, I was hit by a blizzard of money. It all seemed to happen in a split second. Bills flew out of the pack, and I was driving through them. Green and yellowish American money. Dozens of bills were hitting my windshield and swirling around each side of my truck as I tried to hit the brake, but I was already entering the tunnel. I was aware of him as a green dot disappearing ahead of me...he never even looked back.
Under the tunnel there is no place to pull off. No shoulder. And in my rear view mirror, two trucks were coming through the intersection and into the flying money. They had time to stop before hitting the tunnel. For me, it was too late, I had no way to turn back. I drove on and made a U-turn, and then headed back though the tunnel. The other two trucks had pulled off just before the tunnel, and three young men were running around, laughing,and scooping up money. By the time I got back there, it was all over as quickly as it had begun. The lucky guys were laughing and walking back to their trucks counting fists full of dough.They were twenty dollar bills.. Nice clean bills, too.

I walked around the side of the road, looking around the high grass for any bills that might have been missed. No such luck. I kept thinking about the desperate dude on the bike, and how he lost it all. Once he arrives at wherever he was going, he was in for a rude surprise. I checked the local paper the next day for any news of a robbery. Nothing. Perhaps he was a drug runner coming back from a deal. That wouldn't surprise me. Most of them have muscle bikes like that. Fast enough to outrun the law. I decided to leave the scene before he turned back, wondering where his money went.

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