On the Radio - Anne Wright

Harvey liked to clean motorcycle parts in his workshop in the garage. It was his way of getting out of the house, and he always felt like he’d accomplished something when the rag was full of black grease and the pieces of his motorcycle engine sat arranged, lovingly, in a straight line on the battered bench.

Uncle Bob had given Harvey the motorcycle. Actually it was a couple of cardboard boxes of oily blackened parts and a pile of wheels and a dusty frame that had sat in Bob and Louise’s screened in side porch. The people who cleaned out the house after they died had instructions to call Harvey to come get the stuff.

Harvey and his wife Elizabeth both worked during the week. She was a night administrator at the hospital and he helped in the accounting department of Smith’s Family Clothing. Sometimes they met at the restaurant to have dinner, but other than that Harvey was either asleep or thinking about the motorcycle in the garage when Elizabeth was home. He liked it that way, just like he found peace and quiet in his little office at work, with the radio turned low so only he could heard the songs.