Dance till you drop

Racing

-Dylan-
It's been a few weeks and I'm heading to the track with Max. It's the third week of racing on Thursday's. Emily and Adam are with us tonight. I still don't know the real reason why it's Max's last year. He is only 16.

He heads out for his feature.
"Go Max!" We all yell.
Half way through we wait for something. That's when there's a pile of cars in the turns. They go into turn 1. And there is a lot of contact.
I sit with my hands over my mouth. I see the red and black 1 which is Max spin out. He gets spinning fast.
"Oh no." I say.
"What?" Adam says.
"Shh."
He hits the guard rail and starts to roll. I gasp. He flips over the guardrail on to the half mile track. He keeps rolling until he stops and rests.
Emily puts her arm on me. Max doesn't put his net down.
"His net! Max, put it down."
"What? His nets still up! Max, dude, put it down." Adam says.
"Put it down." I say.
He doesn't. A few officials run to his car and put down the net. They start waving. The whole place goes quiet. I look over to the pits. I see Max's dad pull his head set off. His mom walks to him. They would know and they don't look the best.
Please no. Max told me he liked me and I told him I liked him earlier today. Why God why?
That's when I see the ambulance lights go on and go by Max's car. Oh no.
Emily hugs me. I put my head on her shoulder. I see them pulling Max from his car and lay him on a stretcher. They take his helmet off. He just lays there, motionless. I feel Adam hug me and Emily too. A tear hits my face. Emily grips me tighter. I see Max's mom running down the track. She opens the gate and runs to us. She grabs me and puts her arm around me. She tells Adam and Emily to follow. I hear some people whispering.
"Do you think that's his girlfriend?"
I could have been!
"Is that his girlfriend? She looks pretty young."
"maybe cause he's only 16!"
"What?"
"Yeah."
We walk on to the track. Where I have been so many times but if feels so different. We walk into the pits his mom's arm still around me. His dad walks to us.
"Adam, can you drive his truck and meet us there?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Someone is taking his hauler for us so let's go."
They get in the other truck as I get in with Emily and Adam. I sit in the back with Emily.
"I've got to call my mom."
"Yeah. We may be here for a few days."
I grab my phone and call my mom.
"Hello?" Crystal answers.
"Crystal, I need to talk to mom."
"Okay. But, what's wrong?"
"Just give the phone to mom."
I hear them talking.
"Hey, everything okay?"
"No."
"Honey where are you?"
"I'm in Max's truck with Adam and Emily."
"Is Max with you?"
"No."
"Isn't he supposed to be racing right now?"
"Yes. But he's not."
"Honey, what's going on?"
I can't say it. Emily grabs my phone and puts it on speaker.
"Hi, this is Emily and Max was in a crash. A bad crash and didn't get out of his car."
"Oh my God! Is he okay?"
"No."
"Oh my God! I just, I can't believe this. He seemed fine."
"Something was going on! It was his last year mom. Something was happening I didn't know about." I say.
"I'm sure he'll be okay."
We hang up a little while later. We all get out and walk in. His dad stands at the counter and his mom is sitting down. We join his mom.
His dad walks back.
"I knew I shouldn't have let him race this year. I knew it."
Why do they say that? Why didn't they want him to race?
"Your the one who said, oh just let him go one more season. He'll be fine."
"Your trusting my judging skills?"
"True."
"Why? Why did I do that? Why?"
Why do they keep saying that? What was wrong before?
"Your the one who said it was up to him if he wanted to race knowing the circumstances."
"Well sorry that I didn't think anything would happen."
"You knew what they told you. One wrong hit and it could be over. This could have been that hit but you're dang lucky it wasn't."
He sits down.
"I know I am. Should never have let him in this year. I know."
This just makes me confused and kind of mad because of it. What happened? Why didn't they want him in a car again?
"Dylan." His mom stands up. "Follow me for a little while."
I do. She goes into another lounge. Something tells me she's been here before.
"Did he tell you this was his last year?"
"Yeah."
"Did he say why?"
"He said he lost interest. I didn't believe him though."
"That's a good thing because that's not the reason. Max loves racing a lot but he just can't race anymore."
"Why? He's only 16."
"Yes. He is only 16 that's why people don't believe us when we tell them. In a race car, it's warm, you have adrenaline going through your body as you know of. Last year, Max got out of his car and collapsed. We didn't know what was going on. Turns out he had overheated which caused things to happen in his brain. That's why we needed him to quit. He's lucky today. And I think he knows it's time to hang up the helmet."
"Wow."
"I know, Max is going to have a hard time with this having to quit thing. He's been racing since he was about 8. Go karts, anything he could. But his favorite was here in Kaukauna."
"Did he have a reason?"
"He felt welcome. That he belonged."
"Wow."
"Being a 16 year old driver it can be hard to fit in. But here he did fit in. But now it's over and it ended like this."
"Yeah. It would be like me in gymnastics. I don't really fit in there"
"Why?"
"Because I'm in dance too. No one else does that."
"Well, they're not as good as you."
"I'm not that good."
"Have you seen how many firsts you've got?"
"Yeah, I know. But people say I don't work on it like I should because I haven't gotten hurt."
"Then your just strong then."
"Thanks."
"Yeah."