Page 113 of The Legend
It’d been awhile since any of us drank, me included, probably because I wasn’t of legalage, but we needed it that night.
Justin andTyler came by around ten that night and brought more beer. Soon they too werelying on the floor with us, drinking. We reminisced and talked about jokes theyused to play on my dad and grandpa. They told me stories of my dad and uncleSpencer cutting the locks to the haulers in the pits when they were kids andthen replacing them with new ones so that the morning of the race none of theguys could get into their haulers. They told me stories of my parents growingup together and ones of my dad’s firstseasonin theNationwide series when he couldn’t make a pit stop to save his life and everytime got into the box sideways.
It waswhat we all needed.
“We’redoing a shitty job at this.” Justin said raising his beer in the air.
“I don’tthink we’re doing that bad.” Tommy defended but then looked around at the messof parts scattered everywhere and just about every box we had opened in thelast few weeks. It didn’t help that Charlie and Noah didn’t understandorganization either. “Okay…maybe we have some work to do.”
The sidedoor opened drawing our hazy attention. It was Arie.
“What areyou guys doing? Get up.” Arie kicked Willie in the thigh.
“We’restressed out?” Tommy asked holding the beer in the air. “We drink!”
“What areyou doing here?” I asked Arie rolling onto my stomach.
Her eyesshifted around the shop. “I was looking for Easton. Have you seen him?”
“Now...” Tommy’s tone took on a curious but amusedtimbre. “...why wouldyoube looking for Easton?”
“None ofyour business fire crotch.” Arie smiled kicking his side.
Tommydoubled over laughing. “Oh jeez, like mother like daughter.”
“Arie!”Williecalled out when she walked to the office.
“What?”she looked over her shoulder trying to hide her amusement.
“Can youget me another beer?”
“No, getit yourself!”
The doorslammed behind her and Willie looked at Tommy. “She’s so much like Sway.”
Before weknew it, Speedweeks had started and the NASCAR schedule was tight. With Daytonastarting, Easton did what he could but the fans wanted to see Jameson in thenumber nine and they didn’t stand in line for hours to meet Easton Levi. I willsay that Easton gained a tremendous amount of fans that week in Daytona. He wassmiling and represented Simplex Shocks andSpringsina manner they appreciated. But it wasn’t the same. I snuck off to Daytona for aday trying to help Kyle and Mason in any way I could and I quickly realized thevoid that was there.
Kyle was never a guy that was known for speaking his feelings.At least not to me.When I walked inside the hauler, he wasthere going through his meticulous notes. He looked up when I entered and theeye contact with him somehow made the emotional divulgence, though he neverspoke, more difficult.
“Hey kid,”he finally said, his eyes falling back to his notebook. Though dad was stablenow, the clarity of that night was still heavy on my mind, and Kyle knew that.
“Hey,” Itook a seat next to him. We spoke about Barberville and how the testing wentlast week with Easton. That’s when he asked about dad.
“I heardJameson’s doing better and communicating a little.”
Themention of his name made me feel sick to my stomach. “Yeah, he’s slowly comingaround.”
“You’llnever forget that shit kid.” He said slowly understanding my feelings aroundthe accident. “There are memories that will forever be with you andunfortunately, that’s one of them.”
The emotion,the fear, the devastation crept up, the lump in my throat rose again.Everyone’s reaction, even if you were not in Knoxville the day of the accident,was withdrawn. We didn’t want to talk about it in fear the emotions would drownus. Escaping it all together wasn’t happening. We lost a legend. We lost agreat man and one was still hanging on. It was then, sitting at the table inthe hauler, marks on the wall from where my dad had lost his temper so manytimes, that Kyle offered me an invaluable insight I never considered.
“You canmiss him, and you can wish he was here, both of them, but that’s just beingselfish. You can want him back because you miss him but there are a lot ofpeople feeling that very same thought. We can’t focus on the life that’s gone.We have to focus on what’s in front of us. What we have to be thankful for.”
He wasright. He was absolutely right. I left the track that afternoon and went backto Mooresville to meet Tommy.
He wasthere pacing the shop floor and muttering to himself.
Tommy ranhis hands through his mess of orange curls, tugging. “What time did Gregsay he’d be here for these two cars?” he motioned with a nod to the No. 9 ofJustin’s sprint car and No. 19 of Tyler’s. Cody and Rager’s cars were alreadythere.
