I kept telling myself I should confront him.
Six months of watching a stranger visit my wife’s grave would make anyone curious. Maybe obsessed was a better word.
Every Saturday at exactly 2 PM, he’d arrive on that black Harley. The rumble of the engine had become as familiar to me as the cemetery gates.
And every Saturday, I’d sit in my car twenty rows away, pretending I wasn’t there to watch him.
Sarah had been gone for almost a year.
Cancer.
Seven months from diagnosis to funeral.
Thirty-nine years old.
We’d been married sixteen years.
The grief never got smaller. You just learned how to carry it without collapsing.
At least that’s what everyone kept telling me.
The biker looked to be in his mid-fifties. Long gray beard. Leather vest. Tattoos covering both arms.
The kind of man people crossed the street to avoid.
The kind of man who looked completely out of place sitting beside Sarah’s polished white headstone.
Yet there he was.
Every week.
Never missing a visit.
Rain.
Heat.
Wind.
Didn’t matter.
One Saturday, I finally decided I’d had enough.
I arrived early and parked behind a line of oak trees.
At 1:58 PM, right on schedule, I heard the Harley.
The man parked, removed his helmet, and walked toward Sarah’s grave.
I waited fifteen minutes.
My heart pounded harder with every step as I crossed the grass.
When I was ten feet away, he looked up.
His eyes were red.
Not angry.
Sad.
Deeply sad.
“I’ve been wondering when you’d come over,” he said quietly.
I stopped.
“You know who I am?”
He nodded.
“You’re Daniel.”
The sound of my name made my stomach twist.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The man glanced at Sarah’s headstone.
“My name’s Mike.”
That wasn’t an answer.
I folded my arms.
“How did you know my wife?”
For a moment, I thought he might leave.
Instead, he reached into his vest pocket and removed a folded photograph.
He handed it to me.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
The picture was old.
At least twenty years old.
Sarah stood smiling beside a younger version of the biker.
They were both covered in mud.
Behind them was a motorcycle.