mandarin-vanilla

Her mother used to take her out for rides on the motorbike at night. The girl would cling to her mother's jacket, perched on the back of the seat. They used to ride around the island in the dark. It only took half an hour to go all the way around and back to their house. They'd ride by the sea, black as oil in the night, and by the rental houses and the pancake house and the fire house. The daughter would often stay up, if she happened to wake in the night, in the hope that she'd hear the garage door opening. After the divorce, when the house on the island was sold and they moved to a place where the out-of-doors at night was no place for wo