Bricks Deodato was 15 years old, and he had not eaten a real meal since Tuesday, and he had been called son that morning by two men who had never called him son before. He said, "Sir, I would like the job." Please, Odom Kestrel wrote a check. He handed it to Reed Halverson. It was for $11,000. He said, "This is out of the Cormac Halvorson Memorial Fund.
It is for whatever this kid needs. Bed, clothes, boots, a dentist. Keep receipts." Reed Halvorson said, "Odom?" "Yes." The memorial ride happened on Saturday morning at 7:00. 83 bikes, 200 miles. Cormac Halvorson's rebuilt Shovelhead ran the whole route in the lead position, riderless, engine perfect, chained lightly to Reed Halverson's chase truck for balance.
Bricks Deodato rode in the chase truck with Reed Halvorson. He wore a new pair of jeans and a new flannel shirt Reed had bought him at the Walmart in Cody the night before. He watched the Shovelhead's front wheel roll 200 miles across Wyoming without missing a beat. At the granite bench outside Meeteetse, 83 riders parked. They stood in a wide arc around the bench for 11 minutes.
Nobody spoke. Then Odom Kestrel walked to the bench. He put his hand on it. He said quietly, "Brother, we got the bike right. Rest." That was the whole ceremony.
On the ride back to Cody, Reed Halvorson said to Bricks in the cab of the truck quietly, "Kid, do you know how we got the bike right?" Bricks said, "Sir, it was just a ground." Reed said, "Kid, it was not just a ground." Bricks Deodato is 17 now. He passed the GED in December of that first year. He completed his first year at Northwest College in Powell in the spring. He is second in his class in the motorcycle technology program.
He works 22 hours a week at Halvorson Custom Cycles. He lives in the apartment above the shop. The cook at Wanda's Diner was arrested that same Thursday afternoon on charges of aggravated assault on a minor. He pleaded guilty.
He served 11 months. He no longer works in food service in Wyoming. Bricks Deodato's uncle in a state prison in Montana receives a letter from Bricks every other month. He has written back every single time.
On the wall of Halvorson Custom Cycles in Cody, above the bench where Bricks does most of his work, is a framed piece of paper. It is a torque spec chart handwritten by Bricks himself for the ground strap of a 1974 shovelhead. Below the chart, in Reed Halverson's writing, is one line, "Four for minutes. September, the day the kid came in looking for a bathroom."