~ Chapter 7 ~
“Delana? You home?”
“Kitchen!”
Jr led himself into the kitchen and dropped a few bags onto the counter.
“Thanks… did you get it?” Delana said while turning from the stove with her spatula still in her hand to look at the face of the young Earnhardt.
“You are evil… Cruel..”
“Come on Jr! Did you?”
Jr grimaced and reached into one of the bags pulling out a rectangular box.
“Here…”
Delana walked over and grabbed the box from him. She looked in his face and smiled wide when she saw the Earnhardt Glare staring at her.
“Oh come on Dale! Your telling me your sister never made you go out and get her a box of tampons before?!”
“Absolutely not…” he mumbled to her.
“Oh… well then it was a new experience then!” She giggled and turned back to the stove.
“Don’t’ ask me to do that again and I’ll forget this ever happened.”
“Alright then!” She laughed.
“Where’s Kevin?” His blue eyes scanned the room thinking he might have missed him quietly sitting somewhere staring into space.
“Oh he’s out back sitting by the pool.”
“Oh… Anything new?”
“Nope.”
“He still getting up in the middle of the night and going down to the couch?”
“Yea… Every morning I find him there. I tried staying up to catch him leave but I never can!”
“Hmmm…”
Without blinking Jr headed out the back sliding glass doors to the back yard. Kevin and Delana had just put in a new in ground swimming pool not to long ago and he found Kevin sitting in a folding chair staring into it.
His eyes looked hollow and empty.
“Hey Happy! What’s up?”
Kevin looked over at him with his emotionless face and watched as Jr pulled an other chair out and sat down next to him. Jr was use to him not answering. It had been a week now and not one sound came out of his mouth. No other expression crossed his features.
“You got a nice pool here. You should go in it some time. Have you yet?”
“Have we yet what?”
Jr turned around as Delana came walking out with a couple glasses of lemonade in her hands.
“Oh I was just asking if you’ve gone in the pool yet.”
“Nope I haven’t yet. Kevin did though…. Before the…”
“Yeah I know.” Jr said cutting her off not letting her finish.
De handed Jr a glass and then leaned in front of her husband with the other glass. She gently took his hand in hers and wrapped his fingers around the cold container.
“Here honey.” She whispered and stepped back.
Kevin sat holding the glass, now back to staring out passed the pool.
“He drinks it every now and then.” Delana whispered around to Dale.
“Delana… I was thinking.”
“Huh?”
Jr set his drink on the ground by his chair and motioned to her to follow him back into the kitchen. Once inside he continued.
“We have to do more then just have him sit around Delana. We need to do something.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“So heres what I came up with.” He said with a wide grin. “How about we take him to the next closest race?”
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“Hey everyone!!! SHUT UP!!” Richard Childress yelled out to the large crowd trying to get their attention after many failed tries. All eyes finally focused on the car owner.
“THANK YOU! Now listen up! I know you’ve all heard who is coming to the race today… I have a few things I wanted to say to you all before he gets here!”
“Hey Richard? Has he spoken yet?” The room burst out in chatter again after Jeff Gordon’s question and Richard hit the microphone with his fingers to get their attention back.
“Can we save questions for after? I might have answered this!”
“Sorry.” Jeff said while sitting down.
“To answers Jeff’s question… no he hasn’t spoken yet. That is the reason we are bringing him here. Now… I want you all to act normal. Don’t ask him too many questions cause you wont get an answer. We don’t’ want to stress him so don’t get too excited alright? Don’t’ run up to him or jump at him… ACT NORMAL! Is that clear?” Richard scanned the room filled with drivers and crew members as they all nodded their heads.
“Fine… Delana and Jr. are on their way right now with him so go about your business and thank you for coming to this early meeting.”
The people in attendance were surprisingly quiet as they all started to file out of the large conference room at Lowes Motor Speedway.
“I just hope this works…” Richard mumbled as he stepped out from behind the podium and down the stairs.
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”Here honey… Put these on.” Delana said as she slipped a pair of sunglasses onto the bridge of her husbands nose.
“De leave him alone.” Dale said with a hint of aggravation in his voice. “What if he doesn’t want sunglasses on… and what if he didn’t want that hat on either?”
“I’m trying to make him look like himself that’s all.’” She said while fixing Kevin’s hat from the back seat.
“He IS himself… so therefore he looks like it. You told me if he really wants something he does it without help. He could have put those glasses and that hat on all by himself.” Jr pulled into the gate of the speedway.
“Just drive…”
Jr pulled the car into the infield and parked near Richard Childress’s motor coach where he was standing waiting for them.
“Think he’s ready for this?” Delana questioned from the back seat. “I mean… I don’t want to push him into something extremely stressful.”
“Little too late for that now Delana.” Jr looked over at Kevin’s profile. He could see under the sunglasses that his eyes had more life in them then he’d seen in a month. Not much but at least they were darting around, taking in the surroundings.
Jr reached over and unlocked the doors to his Chevy Impala and pushed open the door slowly. He could see small groups already forming around the car. True they were keeping their distance but it was enough to make Jr feel that horrible feeling of being watched. He could only imagine what Kevin was gonna feel about it. If he’d even notice.
“Hey Jr… hey De!” Richard said joyfully as he walked over to greet them.
“Hello Richard. How are you?” Delana said while pulling herself out of the backseat and shutting the door.
“I’m good I’m good! How’s my race car driver?” He questioned while looking into the car that still contained Kevin.
“Same.” De mumbled while opening the passenger side door and taking Kevin’s practically limp hand to urge him out.
Jr and Richard stood watching as Kevin slowly rose himself out of the seat and stood to the side as Delana shut the car door.
“Something’s a little different.’ Jr whispered next to him, his lips hardly moving. Richard could barely hear him.
“Huh?”
“His eyes…”
“I can’t see them Jr… Sunglasses…”
“Never mind it’s prolly nothing.” And before Richard could push him farther with his comment Jr walked away towards the Married couple.
“You guys ready? I’ll walk around with you for a little bit but then I gotta get ready and go to the drivers meeting.”
“You don’t’ have to walk with us Dale. I know my way around.” De said while keeping Kevin’s hand firmly in her own. She looked a little frightened to be there… to be around all these people she never had a problem being around before. Afraid of what they were thinking as they stared.
“I’ll walk with you to the garages, how’s that sound?”
“Fine…” her voice broke as she tried not to look around her at the groups of people forming and lining up to see the famous Kevin Harvick in this horrible state.
“They are staring Jr.”
“Let them… You know they were gonna do it anyways.” Jr said back as he watched Kevin’s eyes from the side of the sunglasses. They were still darting around to take everything in but his facial expression never changed. He was wondering if De had even noticed.
Finally they got to the garage area and free from any possible reporter attacking them. ‘Richard must have taken care of that.’ He thought to himself as they walked up to Tony Stewarts Garage area.
Tony was standing at the front of the car talking to his crew chief when he saw a familiar sight in front of him. Without blinking, he stepped away from the conversation and walked over to the trio.
“Hey guys!” Tony said cheerfully. He was trying not to stare too much at Kevin.
“Hey Tony! What’s up?”
“Getting the car ready Jr… shouldn’t you be doin that too?” Tony giggled.
“Yeah I should be. But I got more important things right now.”
“Yes you do. Hey Delana? How you doin?”
“Why does everyone have to ask me that?” She said with a slight giggle. The tension eased somewhat. Tony walked over and gave her one of his Tony Stewart bear hugs causing her to let go of Kevin’s hand.
“Well you two can chat it up. I need to get to my car ok? De if you need me you know where to find me.”
“Alright Dale thanks.”
Jr walked into the garage area and disappeared. Delana and Tony chatted for a while about what’s been going on in racing and how Kevin’s car had been doing with Johnny Sauter driving it on Sundays.
“He’s doing good. I’m being careful around him so don’t worry.”
“You better be! Or I’ll sick Richard on you.”
Tony giggled and then with a sigh he turned to glance around the garage areas. Delana looked up to find a confused expression on the Home Depot drivers face.
“What… Tony?”
“Did… umm… Jr take Kevin with him?”
“WHAT?!” Delana spun around only to find that her husband was missing.
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He couldn’t’ believe he had gotten away with it. He thought he’d be seen. There were so many people in the garage area that he KNEW he’d be caught! But he had made it and no one had said anything.
“Whooo” he said out loud while leaning up against one of the motor coaches he was between. He wiped the sweat that had formed above his eyebrows. He looked up and down the length of the buses looking for anyone that might have followed…. Nothing.
After making sure everything was safe, he turned to the mute figure next to him.
“I’m sorry I had to do that but… I wanted to talk to you in private.”
Greg Biffle cocked his head to the side at Kevin’s expressionless face.
“You seriously aren’t all there huh?”
Greg couldn’t believe that something like this would happen to anyone. It was true he and Kevin never saw eye to eye in anything and have had their run ins with each other… but in no way did he wish this on anyone.
He slowly reached up to remove the sunglasses from the drivers face to see his eyes.
“Well… I don’t know if you even hear or understand me but… I thought I should tell you that I’m sorry. I’m sorry about being such an asshole to you and even though you did some stuff too I know that I had an equal part in it. When I heard what happened to you I felt horrible cause I was hoping I’d get a chance to say all this. Yeah I know it was only to ease my own conscience… but no one ever said I wasn’t shallow and thought only of myself.”
Kevin never blinked but WAS looking at him as the rival driver continued on with his rant.
“I hope you get better soon and we can race again… You are a great as hell race car driver and maybe that’s the reason you and I got tangled up so much… cause we are both a couple of the best.’
Biffle gave off his annoying grin as he went to pat Kevin on the shoulder… but his hand didn’t get that far. A hand from behind intercepted it and wrenched it backwards behind his back.
“What the FUCK do you think your doing?”
The familiar voice of an Earnhardt filled his ears as he was pushed face first up again one of the buses.
“Explain Biffle before I make a permanent bus mark on your face!”
“I was just talking!”
That answer wasn’t good enough and Jr made it clear by pulling the drivers arm back farther.
“Owwww!!!”
“Just like you to kick them when they are down huh Biffle?”
“Its not like that! Owww!!”
“I don’t want to see you near him again do you hear me? EVER!”
Jr let go and spun him around so he could be face to face.
“Do you understand me?”
“Yeah yeah man whatever!”
With one fling of his arm he sent Biffle crashing to the pavement in a large heap as he tried to scramble away.
“Son of a bitch.” Jr Mumbled… “Kevin why did you let him lead you away like that?”
Jr lightly grabbed Kevin by the elbow and led him back out into the open garage area.
“DALE you found him!!!” Delana said running up to Kevin and throwing her arms around him.
“Where was he?” Richard questioned. A look of relief was evident on his face.
“You don’t wanna know…”
