The Priest’s Bed

Prose: The Priest’s Bed - Racing Daydreams by Colin Johnston

This is a note I made, on the train


And the boy said, “Speak to me of Achille.”.

The old man shifted in the bed. Something had nipped him.

“What does it matter? It’s over.”. The exclamation stealing his breath, he continued at a whisper.

“It is finished. Soon we’ll be dust. Like Campari, like Ascari, like…”. “Like Giorgio and Alberto”, he thought. Beautiful boys, poor Carolina.

Pain rose again. Rattled his chest, pulsed in his neck. Eyes tight shut against it.

The hubbub drone in the street had changed. Pitch & amplitude. The boy chinked the drapes, enough to see that a saloon had pulled up outside. A man unfolded himself from the car. “It can’t be?”, the boy snapped the curtain shut.

“Dust!..”.

The old man’s eyes suddenly wide open. Open to the dust dancing in the half light. Swirling in the warm air. A murmuration. Memory.

The old man looked at it, through it, beyond it.

The dancing sand of a Tripoli afternoon. The rush of air around a motorcycle, high on the Sitges banking. Art Nouveau filigree, reclaiming the vacuum of a Bugatti at speed.

Why this?
It was to end on the road.
Surely it would end on the road?
Why this?
No death, no glory.
Purgatory.

Footsteps on the stairs…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Featured France Grands Prix Ireland Northern Ireland

Observe the Sons of Ulster: Paris-Madrid 1903

County Down, Ireland: September 1916 Responding to deft touch, the Sopwith Strutter prescribes a shallow arc from Carnalea. Barely above the telegraph wires. No conscious check of bearing – instinctively the pilot dips a wing, and there… K and the children are at the homestead. Waves, and kisses blown. Banking right over Helen’s Bay. Swinging […]

Read More...
Racing Daydreams - Colin Johnston - Ards TT - BBC
Featured Northern Ireland Sports Car Racing

Race to Disaster – The Ards TT

The phone vibrated on my office desk. A glance to see the notification… email… subject line, “TT Film”. Curious, I locked the work laptop and read the message… it was about the Ards TT. Dear Colin, I came across your website in the course of doing some research for a film I am making for the BBC […]

Read More...
Racing Daydreams - Nice to La Turbie
Featured France Sports Car Racing

Elliott Zborowski – Death on the Corniche

1 April 1903, the motoring greats were set for the literal high-point of Nice Week – the hillclimb from Nice to La Turbie. 1903 was planned and expected to be a huge year for the sport, and Mercédès in particular. There were 12 of their 60hp machines in Nice, including a brand-new one for Count […]

Read More...