Recovery

III

"Well?" Mikey asks as Ashley climbs off the rear of the bike. I pull of the black helmet and pull back my brown hair off of my forehead.

"Well what?" I ask pushing out the kickstand and leaning the bike to its left.

"Are you ready to race again? Its been almost two weeks" he states after taking the helmet from my hand.

I swing my leg over the bike and stand up, "I don't think you realize that I can't stay away from cars. What do you think I did while Ash and I were down in Nicaragua?" I ask and smack him on the back. Before he can reply, I turn to the huge crowd of people, lights, music, cars, trucks and motorcycles and breathe in deeply. "Nothing beats this, man" I say with a huge grin on  my face.

"Yeah?" he says and follows my proud gaze at the packed parking lot.

"Hell yeah!" I exclaim, and motion him to follow me. "Just look at this place. Its perfect! I've worked so hard to get our rep up and and the people, the cars, and everything"

"It is pretty nice, and I gotta say, its great running the races for ya, Boss. You meet all sorts of people. ALL sorts"

We walk our way through the crowd and cars towards the middle of the lot. Some of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen are here tonight: a crystal white Audi R8, an ocean blue C7 Corvette Z06, a slate grey Shelby Super Snake, a bright red Mitsubishi Evolution X and so many other beautiful cars.

"Who else would I have do it other than the best spokesman for this? If it weren't for you I wouldn't be getting all of this, uhh, 'business'." I chuckle "Ya know?

"Again, thanks Boss" he says. "Now, do you wanna meet your contender?" Mikey asks.

I turn to him, "Sure! He says he knew Fetzer. We all did, Ashley, you and myself. I'm surprised I never heard of this guy before".

"Well, he right over here. So follow me" Mikey says and leads me between a green 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T and a red 1992 Dodge Viper GTS. Just on the other side stands a small group of blonde girls seeming to all be talking and flirting with someone. They are blocking my view of who they re talking too, but Mikey walks up between them and whispers something in their ears.

They all turn around after waving to whoever it is and walk past me, giving me smothering look. I don't pay any attention to them, and walk up to Mikey and this new guy.

He's leaned over his bike, which looks like a brand new matte grey and green Kawasaki Ninja H2-R. But he's dressed in black jeans and a grayish blue Syndicate t-shirt. He's as tall as I am, but slim as hell.

"Hey bro. You knew Fetzer?" I say with my arms crossed in front of my chest, and puffing out my pectorials a little more than necessary.

The guy turns around to me and says with a straight face, "Yep I did. I heard about you out here in, what ever the hell you call this place, and I didn't think someone Fetzer knew would live out here". He has pale white skin, short dark brown hair and brown eyes.

"It's Mount Veynan. There is nothing wrong with it here out here. And you should know this, but Fetzer grew up only 60 miles west of here" I say, monotone.

"Eh, shabby. I'm from New York" he says without a hint of a East coast accent. If anything he sounds like he would be from Chicago.

I roll my eyes, "So, what your name?"

"Didn't Mr. Dugger tell you already? I don't like repeating myself. I go by Ace"

"Okay Ace, I can't say I really like you. You seem like a dick" I sarcastically retort.

"Thats too bad" he laughs, "But I don't really care. I'm just here to clean up after Fetzer's crash."

"What the hell is your problem, bro?" I say taking a step towards him.

"What the fuck is YOUR problem, Buddy?" he says and gets in my face.

"Hey hey hey!" Mikey chimes in and gets between us. "Having some friendly trash talking before the race?"

I feel a light tugging at my left arm. I look down and see Ashley pulling on my arm. "Baby, calm down"

Still glaring into Ace's eyes, "I'm fine. He's the one with the problem" I say.

Ace just laughs, "Your right Mikey, just a little bit of friendly trash talking". He then pushes past Mikey and sticks his hand out to me. "My real name is Chris Anderson"

I take his hand and squeeze it pretty tightly and you could see in his face that it hurt, but he's trying to still play it cool. "Nick Jones. But tell me one thing before this race" I say then let go of his hand.

Opening and closing his hand by his side, he replies, "What?"

"What as the car Fetzer always drove?" I ask.

"Thats easy bro, an 85 Trans Am" he replies and gets on his bike.

I turn and pull Ashley along side of me back to my bike. "That goddam bastard. Think's he's so cool. I'll show him"

"Nicholas, this is just another race. Don't let him get in your head. He's just an asshole rookie trying to make it big the easy way" Ashley says, trying to comfort me.

"Sounds kind of like me" I say sarcastically.

"How does he sound like you?" she asks bewildered. "You started in an old four speed Beetle. That thing was old, but fast. I've never seen anyone take turns as fast as you did in a Bug".

"Yeah, but as soon as I won enough money, I was onto that Ford Focus and smack talking my way around until I met Fetzer. He was the first one to beat me" I say. My pace becomes slower as I calm down.

"Okay, but what did he teach you?" she asks, even though she's heard the story plenty of times.

"He taught me to slow down with life, but quicken my shift timing because I had great skill with the throttle and steering wheel, but when I shifted I lost valuable milliseconds, which over time add up to seconds and thats how he beat me" I say. "He was right though. Looks at you and I"

"Yeah, before we got serious, the only way we ever saw each other was at the Friday night derby's at the fairgrounds. I still think you looked pretty hot in your t-shirt, USA helmet and ratty old shorts though" she says and squeezes my waist.

When we get up to my bike, like always, she's changed my attitude and calmed me down. She's literally my saving grace.

"Well, just be careful and race your race the best you've ever done. I can't wait to see you cross the finish line and beat this guy" she says and kisses my cheek.

I pull my helmet on over my head, and look at Ashley. "I promise that'll be as careful as possible"

"I love you, Nick. Don't wreck the bike and pay attention" she says sternly and takes a step back.

"I love you too, Ash" I say and focus on the race ahead of me.