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“They said he had a month at least,” I said, my voice hoarse.
“You can never tell for sure how the body is going to behave.” Marta patted my hand sympathetically. “Just be there for him, Seth. Be his friend.”
***
“NASCAR racing?” I turned to Andy. Was he fucking kidding me? This was fucking awesome. I had pushed my earlier conversation with Marta out of my head.
I was determined to make this week memorable.
He laughed and nodded. “Remember when we were nine, how obsessed we were with NASCAR? You begged your parents for that remote-control car for your birthday, and then your dad ran over it a week later.”
I laughed. “God, yeah. And then we got those old TV boxes and put together our own cars and sold tickets to the big race.”
“You’re kidding,” Emily sniggered, her pretty blue eyes twinkling at me. “And people actually paid for that?”
“A buck a ticket, you bet they did,” Andy said. “Only the night before, we left our cars outside. We didn’t realize it was going to rain all night. The next morning, our cars were ruined and we had to give back the fifty-six dollars we’d made.”
“You sold fifty-six tickets?” She giggled.
“Yes, we were quite the little salesmen.” I laughed. “Or at least Andy was.”
He had a knack of being able to convince anyone to do anything, which was one of the reasons he would’ve made a great lawyer. In the third grade, he convinced the entire class that wearing socks to bed would make your feet fall off. Deb had gotten a lot of angry calls from parents that weekend.
“So what exactly are we doing here?” Excitement began to build inside of me. I had a pretty good idea, but I needed to hear him say it.
“Three laps. You have three laps in Number Twenty over there.” I followed his gaze to the revved-up red Chevrolet sitting on the track. My palms began to sweat as I realized this was about to become a reality.
“Holy fuck, man. You’re shitting me.” This had to be a joke, because it was just way to cool to be real.
“If I can’t do it, then you’re the next best thing.” He shrugged. I felt a pang of sadness. This was his dream as much as it was mine, and it sucked that he had to sit back and watch.
“Come with me,” I said, a smile spreading across my lips. He might not be able to drive, but what was stopping him from sitting in that seat next to me as I tore up this track? The worst that could happen would be some pretty serious vomiting, and let’s face it, that was a regular occurrence now anyway.
He raised his eyebrows and nodded as though he hadn’t thought of that. “Why not?” he murmured, a grin spreading across his lips.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Em asked, her voice uncertain. She shot me a look, her eyes wide with fear.
“What’s the harm?” I shrugged. “I’ll look after him. I promise,” I said reassuringly. She nodded, still not looking convinced, but she also knew how much this meant to him.
“Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s do this, then.”
After much convincing of the team in charge, they finally cleared Andy to ride in the car with me. Our instructor ran through some safety precautions and gave me a list of dos and don’ts. I nodded, only half listening because I was so eager to get in and start driving.
“So,” he said, finally done with his spiel, “any questions?”
“Nope. I think we’re good.” I grinned.
He handed me the keys. “Then have fun, and try not to total the car.”
I helped Andy into his seat and strapped him in. Em, who was on standby, wheeled his chair away. Climbing into the driver’s seat, I felt the blood pumping through my veins. This is really happening. I slipped the key into the ignition and started her up.
The wheel shook against my grip, the full power of the machine vibrating through my body. I flashed Andy a grin.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“Let’s do this.”
Slamming my foot down on the accelerator, I tore off down the track. I swerved into the first corner as the wheels spun, trying to regain control.
