The People's Alpha ✔

13: The Moon Goddess

n.b: the French pronunciation of DS is homophonous with déesse, the French word for goddess

The soft dawn light was just beginning to seep through the curtains as I buttoned up my shirt.

Laura was riffling through my half of the wardrobe. "Come on. You can't wear this. You look ridiculous."

"So what. I like pink. I've always liked pink. What if the Alpha wears pink?" I adjusted my tie. "Next time, I'm going to rock up in pyjamas and fluffy slippers, just to see if anyone actually cares."

It had been a tense night. I had woken up several times, and only slept lightly in between.

She sighed. "OK. Take care. Keep the bastards honest and try not to come home with too many bite marks. I'll go check on pack patrol." She let herself out, and a few minutes later I heard the two-stroke buzz of the dirt bike as it sputtered away.

My mind was already thinking ahead to the day that lay ahead, the three-hour drive to the Sunshine Beach Pack. The roads were mostly in an okay condition, and traffic conditions would be light today given the security situation. It would be a breeze.

The morning air was still as I slept outside. The rest of the pack was still fast asleep. A thin pall of mist hung over the cluster of houses in the clearing. The waters of the lake were a turgid bluish-grey.

The house was a low-slung ranch affair built sometime in the early eighties, which wouldn't have looked out of place in any suburban subdivision anywhere in the world. There were thousands of other similar houses in hundreds of packs around the world. Laura had had the idea to build something more extravagant some years ago, getting as far as getting Brian to draw up some plans, but it had never really gone anywhere. There were a few bits here and there that were in need of repair, but overall it still suited our needs perfectly. The gutters did look like they needed a good cleanout. I made a mental note to do that in the next pack working bee.

The garage was a separate building some distance from the house. Outside, there were some tyre marks where the old dirt bike Laura used for getting around the pack territory was usually parked. In the distance, there was the sound of a group of pack members returning from patrol.

Entering its cramped confines from a side door, my eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness of the room. The room was dark. the was a lot of stuff hidden under tarpaulins.

Parked closest to the door, draped under a sheet, was the Hayabusa Laura used for longer journeys. I wasn't a big fan of motorbikes, but it was a pretty nice bike, and it was her choice, after all. She'd always liked motorbikes.

I, however, only had eyes for the sleek shape that rested behind the Hayabusa. Dust motes danced across her metallic brown bodywork, illuminated by the precious few slivers of dawn light from the single dust-covered hopper window above.

The Moon Goddess.

My eyes followed the flowing lines of the bonnet, the gently sloping roof, the C-pillar with the rear turn signal mounted on top, the elegantly tapered rear end.

Even in the dim light of the garage, she looked like a spaceship. She looked otherworldly.

I paused for a while. The outside world suddenly felt distant, a minor fuzzy disturbance in the farthest reaches of my mind. I felt like I could stand here forever if I wanted to.

It had been almost four decades since I had first set eyes on her in a dusty barn. And she still took my breath away.

I stepped around her to open the garage door. Light flooded into the garage. A pair of large headlights stared back at me, their slanted gaze unwavering.

The "Moon Goddess" in question was a 1974 Citroën DS 23 Pallas, painted in Brun Scarabee, with a mustard-yellow velour interior. It had been bought new as a present for the previous Alpha. and it had remained the official Alpha car of the Shadow Bluff pack ever since. Apart from the fitment of an aftermarket supercharger and some other modifications to the engine compartment, it was still almost completely stock.

I got in and shut the door gently, sinking into the sofa-like driver's seat. It had been some time since I had driven this beast. I relaxed entirely, taking a moment to reacquaint myself with my surrounds; the single-spoke steering wheel which allowed for an unobstructed view of the instruments behind, the rear-view mirror mounted on top of the dashboard, the little mushroom-like rubber brake button poking out from the thick carpet beneath my Allen-Edmonds.

I put the key into the ignition and pressed the starter button. The engine clattered into life, settling into a lumpy idle. The supercharger whined and settled into a steady rhythm.

I sat and waited.

There was a quiet, dignified hydraulic whirr as the Moon Goddess gently rose up, the back end first, and then slowly the front end. I let it idle as it gracefully levelled itself, the hydraulic pump ticking away quietly.

I felt the car rock slightly as Brian put his luggage into the boot. A few moments later, he sank into the front passenger seat. The car sank a little on his side, then rose up again with a hydraulic hiss. "How was your night?"

"I had patrol duty until nearly three in the morning. Not much happened, really. We had one false alarm. It turned out to be a deer."

"I've forgotten how good this car is," Brian gushed as I put the car into gear and nosed forward into the morning light. "It's going to be like putting on a hair shirt when I get back to my Toyota."

"Given where we're going, you may actually feel the need to when we get back."

"Part of me feels like trying one on right now, given my family's behaviour at the pack meeting."

I chortled. "They won't be satisfied until I'm a stone-cold beast who dresses in army fatigues, runs eighteen miles every morning, never smiles, and lives entirely on raw venison and dry muesli."

Brian shook his head. "They'll never be satisfied."

We drove slowly through the pack village, the engine barely ticking over. All was quiet. There were some sentries coming back from their shift. It was still a bit hazy under the treetops, but the mist would soon clear.

We passed Brian's beater Toyota Caldina, parked outside his house. It had a new dent on the front fender.

"Brian, what did you do to it?"

"I bumped it against a post."

"Take care of your things, Brian."

We left the pack village behind and into the trees, descending down toward the main road. The pack sentries stationed there gave way as we passed.

We reached the main road, completely deserted. For a moment that seemed to stretch for some time, we sat there in absolute calm, in the shadows of the tall forest that encircled us, floating on hydraulic fluid, waiting to turn on to the main road. All was quiet, except for the engine and the ticking of the hydraulic pump.

Certain that all was clear, I turned left and accelerated gently. There was no need to hurry. The Moon Goddess knew where she was going.