Heartdriven

20. Lazarus

The first karting day was a day of excitement. Practice and qualifying. It felt good to be back in the world of motorsport, even if at its very beginning. She couldn't help but wonder which of these kids, if any, were going to make it all the way.
Alice was staying at a motel close to the track, having to sit in their "internet café" to send the photos to the newspaper in between sessions.
Waiting for the photos to transfer from her camera to the computer, she walked up to the vending machine and got a bag of chips.
"All expenses paid," she whispered to herself, and got two. Waiting for the second bag to drop, it did not.
"Oh, come on," she knocked the end of her fist on the glass wall, to no effect. Got on her knees and did the old arm-through-the-opening manoeuvre... not making much progress.
"Leave some for the rest of us," awkwardly, and embarrassingly, lying on the floor with her arm in the vending machine, she looked up at a man standing above her, and hastily pulled her arm to herself, scraping it in the process.
"Argh. The shit is stuck." She got up from the floor with the elegance of a panda and no help from the man who had looked down on her, and crossed her arms, covering the bruise.
He stood looking at the vending machine for a moment, "Well, what can you do," as he placed his own bill in it for an energy bar.
Alice stepped back, slightly staring at him, trying not to get caught, her eyes just looking out from the side of her face, trying not to be obvious.
He opened the energy bar, took a bite, turned towards her and leaned up against the machine, causing her bag of chips to drop down. She hesitated towards the opening and grabbed her bag, walking back to her computer, keeping an eye on the man, as she went to her photos folder and opened the album labelled Monaco: Ferrari - FA. Confirming her suspicions, she walked back up to him as he threw out the wrapper from his energy bar.
"Excuse me, sir. Are you... Fernando Alonso?"
He smiled smugly back at her, "Eh-heh, that didn't take you long." Reaching to shake her hand and her not realising it, he just grabbed it from her side and shook it, "He-he, I guess you don't meet too many World Champions on this side of the country."
Alice frowned at him and did question that, "What are you doing here... at this 'side of the country'?", mockingly repeating his phrasing. He let go of her hand and it flopped back to her side, she hadn't even noticed it left.
"I do some karting. I have a team, and we are gonna race over there tomorrow," he pointed with his thumb towards the track.
"You-you are a part of the karting event?" She held her hands up in front of herself, almost to push a brake on the conversation.
"Don't tell me you do some karting yourself?" he questioned.
"No-no, I am here to photograph the event," Alice suggested towards her equipment on the table and he walked over there with her following behind.
He glanced at her computer screen, and the album from Monaco was still open, and he looked at her confused, "What are those?" Flipping the screen down, she stood in front of it, but he raised it back up and got a closer look. "These are yours, you took these photos, no?"
She scratched her eyebrow and sighed, "Yes... uhm. I did to some photography in Monaco."
Sitting down, he started to click through them. "Do you have any from the race?" She scrolled a bit further and showed him more. "These are quite good, you know. Do you want to take some photos for me tomorrow?"
She put her hand on the table, resting... or balancing herself. "Tomorrow? Well, I am here to photograph the event, so...", she looked at him confused and he got up from the chair.
"Yes, I mean; I am doing a special race with the kids, they get to race me in their karts... I would like for you to take some photos for me." Alice just looked at him with wide eyes and open mouth.
"I take that as a yes."

Following the end of the event, Alice sat back in the internet café with Fernando, to go through the photos. He was pleased.
"Can I see more of your photographs from Monaco?" Confused again, but she opened his album up to him. But he took control, and went back... to one labelled Red Bull.
Scrolling through them, he stopped at a few of them, "I have seen these before, yes, I do recognise them from their website."
Alice's headed titled at him in question, "You look at Red Bull photos on their website?"
He looked her dead in the eyes and then back to the screen, "Yes." Okay, that was strange.
"Why do you have so many of Red Bull and so few of the others, are they your favourite team?"
She paused for a moment and looked away. "Not exactly. I was kinda... they gave me access," she shrugged without wishing to elaborate further.
"How did you pull that one off?"... and she thought about how grateful she was to Daniel. But no. Not sharing that.
"They're nice people."
He let out a "Hmph" and got up from his chair. "You send these to me, okay?", referring to the karting photos, of course. She nodded along and he left the motel.

The next morning, Alice had sent the photos to Fernando, and she was looking through the newspaper print, covering the event. Included were some of the photographs she had taken of the man himself. He would like that publicity.
She received a notification on her computer and opened it to discover an email reply from him. "Thank you for the photographs. Can we arrange a meeting?"

They had arranged their meeting for lunch in a fancy restaurant a few days later, and Alice had put on her most professional piece of clothing, her power suit. Was she really about to have a meeting with Ferrari? She adjusted the blazer and shook her head. "Let's go," pumping herself up.
The waiter escorted her to the table where Fernando was already seated with another man, whom she did not recognise. They both got up and greeted her.
She was very nervous, unsure what were to take place, and they dragged it out by insisting they all order their lunches first. Waiting for the meals to cook, they finally got into it.
"Fernando here showed us the photographs you took at the karting event he arranged. They were quite impressive. And then he showed me some of the photos you took of Red Bull from...—" he paused and Fernando cut in, "—Monaco," the man nodded and continued, "Yes, Monaco. They were excellent."
She looked back and forth between them, still confused and, frankly, speechless.
"We would like to offer you a position." Her eyes almost fell out of their sockets. "It would be as a trackside photographer. Meaning, exclusively on track. Not personnel, but just the cars around the circuit. Are you interested?"
She looked at Fernando who was smiling, widely. "Y-y-yes." She coughed in her throat, "Excuse me," and took a sip of water. "Yes, I am interested."