Chapter Twenty One ~~
“Teresa?” “Karla asked in a low voice at the woman next to her. She was worried. Teresa hadn’t said a word since they had gotten back on the road and now they were two miles from the track.
“We’re almost there…” Teresa mumbled from the drivers seat.
“What’s going on?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean how do you know Jr’s there?”
“Don’t know… but I have a feeling.”
With that she reached down to the radio and searched for the channel broadcasting the race. She was almost there.
~~~~
“How’s the car feel now?” his cousin mouthed into the mic after a couple laps.
“Little better.” Jr said. The car was a lot better but he wasn’t. It didn’t matter right now if it was on autopilot. It would still hurt to be in there.
“Your seventh now. Car low… still there… clear. Make that sixth. The 88 in front of you is a lap down.”
“10-4.”
Jr continued on his trek to the lead. He had to get up there. They were already close to halfway through the race and he hadn’t even cracked the top three. He just hoped his car stayed fast enough.
“How are you feeling in there?” Ty asked after he witnessed the Bud car wobble a bit on a straight away. He was a tad worried about the safety of his friend. It was obvious he had been through a lot and was hoping being in that car wasn’t hurting him too much.
“Fine…”
“Yeah… Sure… Still there… clear.” Ty didn’t want to press it any farther. They had just gotten him to talk… he didn’t want to mess that up.
“Hey kid…” his uncle asked a few minutes later. “There’s someone out there who wants to speak to you.”
“Uh… ok?” he stuttered in confusion. Who wanted to talk to him? Did Ron find out he had spoken? Was he going to be responsible for killing his family?
A crackle came over the radio until finally a new voice broke through.
“Hey Jr…”
Jr paused. He didn’t know what to do… He was honestly shocked. How did this person know who he was?!
“Tony?!”
“Yeah… hey buddy”
Jr’s hurting head was now screaming at him. Ron was not going to like this. He prayed to every god who would listen that Ron wasn’t listening right now.
“How in the hell did you get them to link us Tony?”
“I’m persuasive… are you alright?”
“I… I’m fine…” He replied hesitantly.
“Sure you are.” Tony was not convinced. He could hear the pain in his friends voice even over a radio like this.
“I am…”
“You’re a rotten liar.”
“Well you’re just rotten.”
Tony laughed out loud.
“This is true.”
“Jr… still low. Still low…. Clear… all clear.”
“Ty! No Interrupting!” The Home Depot driver joked through the frequency’s trying to lighten the nervous mood.
“Sooo Sorry!”
“Don’t let it happen again… SO! What cha doin Jr?”
Dale Jr’s eyebrows lifted up under his helmet.
“Um... What do you think I’m doing Stewart? That’s a stupid question.”
“Jr!” Tony said sternly.
“What!” He was starting to get annoyed. If Tony thought he was gonna get the real answer he couldn’t be more wrong.
“You shouldn’t be in that car and you know it!” Tony finally screamed. “This isn’t the other day! This is real!” He said getting to the point. Everyone had been worrying their asses off about him and now that he’d found him he wanted him out of danger and fast. This wasn’t for fun anymore. This wasn’t the other day at the track.
“You don’t understand…”
“No I don’t! Now pull over!”
“Its not that simple!”
“Well we can discuss how it’s not that simple when you and your car are safely in your garage! Now go!
“Still there…. Clear… clear three back now.” Ty Snuck in. He couldn’t have been happier to have Tony talking to Jr right now. But a part of him wanted Jr to stay out on that track.
“10-4 Ty… look Tony thanks for the concern but you don’t understand and I’m a little busy out here if you didn’t notice. As for you… “
Jr paused leaving Tony waiting for the rest… but it wasn’t coming.
“Jr… Jr? Hello? You ok?”
Suddenly he felt a hard bump from behind. Not one to wreck him… but one that roughed him up just enough.
“You Tony… are gonna be a little busy now too...” Jr whispered back finally through the radio as he laid the bumper to the home depot car once more.
~~~~~~~~
“Hey Benny? Allen?” Wally said in the booth during a commercial break.
“Yep?” The two men said in unison while looking at their separate notes.
“You two watching that Bud car?”
“Haven’t paid too much attention… why?” Allen said looking up from his paper.
“You might want to…”
The other two in the booth brought their attention back to the race going on below them only to find the Home Depot car and the Bud car fighting for the lead.
“That Hank Jr is doing pretty good!’ Benny said, not taking his eyes off the screen.
“Look at him just rough up Stewart like that.’ Wally muttered.
“Yeah… almost like an…”
“Earnhardt!” a frantic voice from the door way interrupted. The three turned to find Matt Yocum out of breath in the doorway.
“Matt?”
“The wrong Jr is in that car… or… the right Jr… whatever!” he babbled under his breath while bustling in.
“We go back live in one minute Matt. What are you talking about”? Allen said.
"Listen… I have been getting word from fans with scanners in the crowd. They are a tad confused and frankly so am I!” Matt finally got out. Confusion laced his words.
The three men in front of him shifted anxiously waiting for the news.
“Dale Earnhardt Jr is… IN… THAT… CAR!”
“Whoa…” Wally whispered while looking back at the track and the fight in front of him still. It all made sense. The moves he was seeing today were pure Earnhardt.
Allen and Benny looked at each other in shock before looking back out to witness the bud car take the lead.
Finally Benny broke the eerie silence as they came back from commercial.
“Uh… Uh… welcome back… ummm… We have a new leader. It seems there’s also a new development with that Bud car that we will inform you of once we know more.”
Benny hit the mic switch to shut it off after his last word and turned back to Matt.
“Find out SOMETHING! And hurry!”
~~~~~
Kerry wanted to jump up and down like a little kid as he watched his brother take the lead away from Tony. He was very worried when he listened to Hank tell Jr about what the car was doing. It didn’t sound too good in race trim, but Jr had it going now! But he held in his excitement for standing next to him was Ron. The man insisted to not let Kerry out of his site. And he made sure he flashed him his gun every now and then to remind him who was running things.
“Doesn’t matter anyways…” Kerry heard Ron say as the cars approached them again.
“What?”
“Doesn’t matter. Gonna kill him anyways.” Ron Sneered while fingering the gun hidden in his belt.
“You fuckin bastard! He’s doing what you told him to do!” Kerry looked back out at his brother as the car went by again. He couldn’t let this happen. He promised to not let anything more happened to his brother.
“I know he is… and it annoys me. Never thought he’d actually be able to do it.”
“Never underestimate us Earnhardts.”
Kerry’s mind went into overdrive. He had to act fast. Do something to stop this mad man from hurting anyone else. But how?!
~~~~~~
Teresa and Karla cut through the motor coach area en route to pit road when Teresa stopped dead in her tracks. Karla neglected to see this and bumped into Teresa almost sending them both to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Karla questioned while looking at her surroundings.
“You hear that?”
“Hear what? The Cars?”
“Shh…” Teresa said while holding a finger up to her mouth.
Suddenly the two women jumped at a sound coming from one of the busses.
“What was that?” Karla whispered.
“Its close…” Said Teresa just as they heard it again. “It sounds like kicking…”
“It’s coming from this bus.” Her voice was calm and sure of itself and Teresa turned to look at the bus.
“That’s Kerry’s bus.”
Teresa wasted no time at all and hurried over to the door. It wasn’t locked and she hopped in.
“Jr? Kerry?!? Hello!?”
“There it is again Teresa. It’s coming from the back.”
And sure enough it was. Teresa flung open the door and headed over to the closet of the “bedroom”. What she found inside made her jump.
“Hank?!”
~~~~~~~~~~
