Page 184 of The Legend
“I’ve gotsome things to do tonight.” Jameson spoke as if this was extremely important.
“Yeah, what’sthat?” Axel asked him. “Are you planning on robbing a gas station?”
“I’m gonnaweld Spencer’s gate shut today.”
“Soundslike 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. “Doyou know how to weld?”
“No, notreally,” Jameson admitted flipping down his welding helmet. “But how hard canit be?” Sparks burst from the weld spraying back at us immediately. We sat therefor 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.
Jamesongroaned. “Oh man, please don’t let this burn my hair. It just grew back.”
Then Ismelled something burning and it wasn’t the gate. No, the gate was nearly cutin half. Jameson didn’t know how to weld and his pants were on fire.
Jamesonlooked down to see his jeans smoking and stripped quicker than I ever saw.
Turns outhe had the voltage up to high and it welded right through the gate.
Pushingthe welder back home, with no pants on, I had to laugh. “Nice going,”
“Shut up,”was his only response.
When wegot back to the house, Lane, Axel and Casten were standing outside the garagelaughing. Apparently, they were the ones that turned up the voltage.
It wasn’tlong and Jameson moved on from seeming bored to actually being bored, which Iknew was going to happen sooner or later. He eventually turned to reality TVlike everyone else in our family had at one point or another. Since Spencer hadretired too, they were his TV buddies along with Casten and Lane, who was nolonger racing in the GNCC series after he broke his leg.
We had awhole crew who would gather on Monday nights and watch a show where you votedon who was on it and what they did. It was ridiculously captivating and Jamesonwas just as into it.
“Did Imiss anything?” Jameson asked with an armful of goodies and drinks with him.
Axel andCasten chuckled as they sat next to him. They were like a bunch of little girlswith all the laughing. Casten reached forward and stole the popcorn as hewalked by. Jameson tossed a bag of M&M’s at me that he held under his armin my lap.
Keepingthe bag of gummy worms for himself, he threw himself into the leather chairbeside me. “I hate you for this.”
Castensmirked at me. “You know dad—”
He wasn’table to finish before Jameson had silenced his smart ass with a pillow.
Jamesonand 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, theywere still there and I came back in to see that the boys had fallen asleep andJameson was still wide awake. His head tipped my direction. “I can’t believethis shit. We should cancel the cable.”
I thinkJameson had turned to reality TV because missed racing.
Jamesonhad a hard time when Easton would come over and talk to him about differentaspects of racing because deep down, he missed it. But when the sprint car boysstopped by and talked about what they did in Sharon Speedway or how they ran atLernerville, 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 bethe end of his career racing, it couldn’t be. Not when it had consumed so muchof his life.
It wasclear that we needed something to do. All signs pointed to racing and thatnight, lying in bed, Jameson confirmed it.
“I thinkI’m ready to race sprint cars again.”
Twistingin his arms to face him, I let out a sigh. “I know what you mean.”
Nothing feltright without racing. Even if it was Axel racing and the rest of JAR Racing, itdidn’t feel right not having Jameson racing. And the more time he spent awayfrom it, the more time he thought of his dad and how badly his dad had wantedto get back to racing after he retired. Then that brought another string of heemotions with it because what if he returned and he got hurt?
Could Ihold up as well as Nancy?
No. Idon’t think I could.
But,racing was our family. Bench racing wasn’t.
