Green Dragon.

[edwards]

Tal sent vivid dreams of cutting about Southern USA racing stock cars, a green Studebaker that snarled like a dragon and kicked dust when it pawed the ground.
Oh, and there was a team, and a girl, about 5' and slim built, better with an engine than anyone on the team and with a vicious sense of humour, and she was literally a partner in crime - spying, lookout as we robbed another team to keep racing. So much colour, so real, right down to getting caught, and swaggering bravado until one young fan handed over the play worn model of the dragon when the police caught up.



Then the tears. Then watching the girl pushed into a different car, and the mind your head sir, and the cops forgetting to take the toy - or maybe knowing that that moment cut more than losing any race - sat in the back with it held in cuffed hands. Seeing the dragon as just a beat-up Golden Hawk long past competitive days, hauled ass-first onto a towtruck, in the rear view mirror before those eyes, that face, came into focus and looked not like a knight who tamed a dragon, but an old man, tired, who never grew up. Dropping the toy dragon from oil-caked hands, and looking across to the car with the girl - no, the woman - and wondering how the fuck to cope with 4-7 years, resolving to confess all, and keep her out of it.



Note: That black absinthe. That's a good one.