The Legend (72 page)

In the
middle of my weirdo-grandma-cooing, I noticed a necklace around Jack’s chubby
little neck that I was sure Axel wouldn’t have put there and Lily, yeah, no,
shouldn’t have done that either. “What’s around Jack’s neck?” I reached for it
twisting it to see. Jack immediately started slobbering all over me and grabbed
my hand to suck on it.

“What?” he
leaned forward to see what I was referring to but sighed like this was way too
much effort for him to do so.

“That
...
” I point to the makeshift necklace, “around
his neck.”

“Oh,
that.” Jameson grinned and settled back into his position with his feet up.
“It’s a bottle opener so I wouldn’t have to go to the kitchen. You really have
to keep an eye on this kid.”

Glancing
to the right, I noticed the cooler of beer at his feet. “My god, does Axel know
you’re watching him.

“No. Don’t
tell him either. This is between me and Lily.”

I left my
husband alone but took Jack away for his safety when Willie and Tommy showed
up. It seemed now that Jameson had retired and he didn’t need to prepare for
Speedweeks that were approaching, he watched a lot of television. This meant
that his sidekicks, Willie and Tommy, spent a great deal of time at our house.
It never bothered me because let’s face it, they were all entertaining.

Lily and
Axel showed up to claim their kid later that night and I kept my mouth shut
about the bottle opener necklace. I had a feeling this wasn’t anything new
though. Jack was being raised at dirt tracks, I’m sure he had already been
subjected to worse.

Lily and
Axel ended up staying for dinner that night and then eventually just stayed the
night when Axel started drinking with Jameson. I loved all of it. Having our
family around more often was exactly what we needed. It was times like that
though that I couldn’t help but think, “How long will this last?”

Immediately
I focused on what was in front of me.
Our family together.

And Lily,
pissed.

“All
right,” Lily huffed holding up a pair of jeans. “Who was the motherfucker who
put my pre-pregnancy jeans on the bed to taunt me?”

Casten
laughed holding his stomach. “I thought you would like to know what you used to
look like.”

“Casten!”
Axel and
me
scolded him only Axel went a step further
and punched his shoulder.

Casten
fell over dramatically acting hurt as he always did but laughed despite this.
“It was a joke!” he screamed when Lane and Axel dog piled him. That turned into
a wrestling match in my kitchen.
Nothing new.

After we
ordered pizza, Jameson came in wearing all black and I gathered he was about to
one up his brother again.

“I’ve got
some things to do tonight.” Jameson spoke as if this was extremely important.

“Yeah, what’s
that?” Axel asked him. “Are you planning on robbing a gas station?”

“I’m gonna
weld Spencer’s gate shut today.”

“Sounds
like fun,” I said jumping to my feet. “I’ll help you.”

  
On the way there, pushing a welder up Spencer’s gravel driveway, I asked. “Do
you know how to weld?”

“No, not
really,” Jameson admitted flipping down his welding helmet. “But how hard can
it be?” Sparks burst from the weld spraying back at us immediately. We sat there
for a minute as he adjusted the settling and then more sparks flew back at us.
I jumped back when some got me in the face.

Jameson
groaned. “Oh man, please don’t let this burn my hair. It just grew back.”

Then I
smelled something burning and it wasn’t the gate. No, the gate was nearly cut
in half. Jameson didn’t know how to weld and his pants were on fire.

Jameson
looked down to see his jeans smoking and stripped quicker than I ever saw.

Turns out
he had the voltage up to high and it welded right through the gate.

Pushing
the welder back home, with no pants on, I had to laugh. “Nice going,”

“Shut up,”
was his only response.

When we
got back to the house, Lane, Axel and Casten were standing outside the garage
laughing. Apparently, they were the ones that turned up the voltage.

It wasn’t
long and Jameson moved on from seeming bored to actually being bored, which I
knew was going to happen sooner or later. He eventually turned to reality TV
like everyone else in our family had at one point or another. Since Spencer had
retired too, they were his TV buddies along with Casten and Lane, who was no
longer racing in the GNCC series after he broke his leg.

We had a
whole crew who would gather on Monday nights and watch a show where you voted
on who was on it and what they did. It was ridiculously captivating and Jameson
was just as into it.

“Did I
miss anything?” Jameson asked with an armful of goodies and drinks with him.

Axel and
Casten chuckled as they sat next to him. They were like a bunch of little girls
with all the laughing. Casten reached forward and stole the popcorn as he
walked by. Jameson tossed a bag of M&M’s at me that he held under his arm
in my lap.

Keeping
the bag of gummy worms for himself, he threw himself into the leather chair
beside me. “I hate you for this.”

Casten
smirked at me. “You know dad—”

He wasn’t
able to finish before Jameson had silenced his smart ass with a pillow.

Jameson
and the boys spent the rest of the night in their watching that show,
captivated by something they said they’d never watch. After four hours, they
were still there and I came back in to see that the boys had fallen asleep and
Jameson was still wide awake. His head tipped my direction. “I can’t believe
this shit. We should cancel the cable.”

I think
Jameson had turned to reality TV because missed racing.

Jameson
had a hard time when Easton would come over and talk to him about different
aspects of racing because deep down, he missed it. But when the sprint car boys
stopped by and talked about what they did in Sharon Speedway or how they ran at
Lernerville, I saw that same fire in his eyes I had always saw.
The fire to race.
I knew when he retired that it wouldn’t be
the end of his career racing, it couldn’t be. Not when it had consumed so much
of his life.

It was
clear that we needed something to do. All signs pointed to racing and that
night, lying in bed, Jameson confirmed it.

“I think
I’m ready to race sprint cars again.”

Twisting
in his arms to face him, I let out a sigh. “I know what you mean.”

Nothing felt
right without racing. Even if it was Axel racing and the rest of JAR Racing, it
didn’t feel right not having Jameson racing. And the more time he spent away
from it, the more time he thought of his dad and how badly his dad had wanted
to get back to racing after he retired. Then that brought another string of he
emotions with it because what if he returned and he got hurt?

Could I
hold up as well as Nancy?

No. I
don’t think I could.

But,
racing was our family. Bench racing wasn’t.

31.
          
Drive Train – Jameson

Drive Train
– The components of an automotive vehicle that connect the transmission with
the driving axles and include the universal joint and drive shaft.

How do you
decide how much of yourself you’re going to put into something?

It’s a tough
decision to make.

Come March
and all my friends were back to racing, I was bored and wanting inside of a car
again. More importantly, I wanted to go back to sprint car racing.

The
thought scared me and instantly made me think of the accident that took my dad
and nearly killed me. But if I never got back in one, I would never get over
that fear.

My other
thought was could I just go out there for fun?

The thing
was, I found the idea of guys just racing for fun ludicrous. If you didn’t come
to win, why race at all.

After
spending a few weeks at Grays Harbor in April getting the track reading with
Van, who took over as General Manager there, my decision was set. I would
return to racing sprint cars with the World of Outlaws. It wasn’t hard to find
a sponsor. In fact, Simplex sponsored Justin’s car and mine along with Solar
Seals, JV Manufacturing and Colton Construction.

All that
led me to Lernerville in May. The first time I returned to a sprint car.

Don’t
think I wasn’t nervous because I was.

Most of our
family was there along with my entire JAR
Racing
team
that Axel had merged with. It was a lot easier than having two sprint car
teams.

Was I
nervous to get inside a sprint car?

Yes.
Very nervous.
I had some flash backs of Knoxville and the
accident but just like that crash in Pocono, Sway was there to calm me down.

After tech
inspection, we were standing outside the hauler with Axel and the boys. The
heat of the afternoon had peaked and left most of the guys with the suits
pulled down around their waist and no shirts. I was one of them.

Sway’s
arms wrapped around my waist and she pressed herself into my back. Kissing over
my shoulder blade, I felt her smile against my skin. I smiled too remembering
this very same scene as kids.

I think
that’s why I went back to sprint car racing, or wanted to at least. There are
times when you get older that you’re reminded of what made you happy as a
child. It’s almost like it is your hearts way of reminding you of where you
came from and what you were made of.

That’s why
I came back.

Being
here, with Sway, and the kids, my friends surrounded by the only lifestyle I
knew was what I needed. I thought retirement was what I needed for myself and
Sway, especially after the accident. It felt like we had lost our connection when
all along, we needed each other and this.

Twisting
in Sway’s arms, my lips found hers remembering the way they molded to mine as
one.

When I got
back into the car that night, the fear hit me a few times and I wasn’t
competitive when I got caught up early on with a driver out of California.

All in
all, my first race wasn’t eventful. I showed up, raced, talked with fans,
signed autographs, flirted with my wife and threw back beers with the boys. It
was the most
laid
back night of racing I had ever
experienced. There was no pressing media or rival drivers, it was just racing
and in the purest form.

We ended
up staying in a hotel after the race with the rest of the family, even my mom,
and it was just like every other experience I’ve had with my family. A few get
drunk, others fight, and we end up nearly getting kicked out of the hotel.

At some
point Tommy and Willie took off to Pittsburg and we never saw them again. The
only problem with that was they took our sixteen-year-old son with them.

  
“Jameson,” Sway said to me that morning with her concerned motherly tone she
had about three times during the course of our marriage. “I’m not okay with
Casten parting with Willie. The dude’s got some issues.”

  
Peeking up over my cup of coffee, I smiled. “I know honey. I didn’t say he
could go
...
but I also
didn’t stop them.”

  
She seemed to contemplate for a minute and then shrugged. “I hope they’re not
in jail. I really don’t want to bail my son out of jail.”

  
Not more than two minutes later, Casten came back to the room with my mom, who
was wearing a handful of beaded necklaces around her neck and another one that
had a shot glass tied to it.

  
As soon as her knees hit the side of the bed, she fell face first into the
mattress and was asleep a second later.

Casten sat
next to her and sighed, his expression something similar to that of a concerned
parent as he stroked the back of her head petting her. “Poor girl, she had a
rough night.”

“Casten,
please tell me you didn’t let her get a tattoo.”

“No, there
was no tattoo last night
...
”
his eyes dropped to the floor. “But
...
she
did have too much to drink and puked in your truck.”

“My truck?”
I ran
to the window to look at my truck that was now parked sideways in a stall. “Why
did you guys take my truck? Tommy has a truck, why didn’t he take his?”

“I don’t
know.” Casten shrugged lying next to my mom. “Something about his truck being
connected to the hauler and he couldn’t find the key to the lock.”

My truck looked
like it was the stunt car in some War of the Worlds movie. “Where’s Tommy? He’s
paying for that shit.”