Page 171 of Trading Paint
Money was rolling in from the wins and merchandise sales so I decided to buy a few things. Usually sponsors were throwing merchandise my direction so I never had to buy clothes again if I didn’t want to and cars? I had plenty of those. Anything Ford made, I had my choice of.
Besides my Ford F250 I had been driving since I was sixteen, I hadn’t purchased anything for myself besides race car parts.
After I poured a large sum of the money into the sprint car team, I bought some toys...a Yamaha YZ250, four of them actually, a 2003MastercraftX-30 wakeboarding boat, three Yamaha Raptor quads and then some property to play on.
Ford was nice enough to provide me a brand new Ford 4-door F350 so I definitely had thepowerto tow these toys.
I ended up purchasing a large piece of land not far from my parents but far enough that I could get away when needed. It felt good to have something of my own for once.
Do you want to know my first thought as I walked around the land after signing the papers?
Sway.
I thought of what it would be like to have her here with me, sharing a home. Brief and fleeting, the thoughts didn’t last long knowing she would never be with me likethat. Now with Charlie sick, any intentions I may have had, were now gone. It wouldn’t be right to ask for more, so I thought.
While the boys ran up the road for more beer that night after riding, I wandered around the property, watching the moon slowly rising. The orange and pink shades from the sun blended with the darker hues of the night as the moon appeared.
I wanted to feel Sway against my side in that moment. I wanted to hear her soft giggle, look into her green eyes and tell her everything I feared, everything I wanted, and everything I couldn’t. The gravel and dirt crunched beneath my feet, the wet, fresh cut grass smell surged throughout the air circling with the night’s cool air and the lasting traces of racing fuel from the dirt bikes imbued everything together.
I spent the greater part of the night out there just wandering around.
With fifteen areas, there was a lot of land to see. Changing rapidly from trees to an open clear-cut meadow, the land was versatile and allowed me to make more trails and even a bigger dirt track if I wanted.
Eventually I started a fire and waited for the boys to get back. I was sure they’d figure out where I was with the glow.
The orange flames from fire flickered against the beer bottle in my hand. When a piece of wood dropped it sent a burst light throughout the air, the white ash dusted my black fleece. Though it was summer, the breeze had a chill to it. I shuddered drawing my arms to my chest for warmth.
The fire reminded me of the night, in high school, when I went up to Dayton Peak with Sway, the same night I gave into Chelsea.
If I had my way, I’d take that night back. Hell, I would have never started anything with that whore. I heard from Tommy not too long ago that she was hanging around the dirt tracks again, even asking about me. She was out of her mind if she thought I’d ever talk to her again. Trifling, thoughts of Chelsea subsided when my mind, focused steadily on Sway, wondering what she was doing right now.
I heard Justin before I saw him, cursing as he tripped over a log. “Oh goddamn it.”
“Careful there,” I chuckled taking a drink of my beer. “I need you in that car next week.”
“You should have thought of that before you put that track in.” he mused. “I think I broke my finger.”
The flashlight he was holding swept back and forth watching the ground trying to guide him through the darkness at the fire. He shined it in my eyes when he got within a foot of me, blinding me.
“Jerk,” it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust. “Where’s Tyler?”
Ryder had already left to catch flight to Ohio.
“He’s coming. I made him carry the beer.” He glanced down at his hand, rubbing along his palm. “I really do think I broke my finger.” He held his hand up to the fire; his index finger bent the opposite way between his knuckle and joint.
“Appears that way—can you race?”
“Hell—I’ve raced with a broken arm, thisain’tgonna stop me.” Justin took a sharp intake of breath before gripping the finger tightly and then jerking it into back into place. He fell over, moaning in pain.
“Pussy,”
“Oh fuck you.” He groaned kicking my leg. “This is your fault.”
“How so?”I stepped away from him so he couldn’t kick me again.
“You said, and I quote, “Let’s build a dirt bike track,” really though,” he paused laughing. “whatthe fuck were you thinking?”
“I never said I was thinking at the time. It was supposed to be fun.”
