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As they arrived and pulled into a long line of vehicles seeking parking, Levi felt his tension rising. Grace placed her hand on his arm and he instantly felt calmer. He finally found a parking place that wouldn’t require a mile-long hike in the heat to reach the raceway. On the way to their seats, he stopped and bought bottles of icy cold soda, a box of popcorn, and another of salted peanuts.
Their seats were at the end of a row near the middle of the track, where they’d have a good view of the cars. Levi had purposely chosen seats at the back of a section so no one would be immediately behind him. It made him nervous to be around big crowds of strangers.
Although he’d experienced plenty of nerves at Grace’s cousin’s wedding, it was a different type of nervousness, borne from meeting her family and seeing her hometown more so than being in an unfamiliar and unsettling setting.
Levi drew in several deep breaths, trying to block out as much noise as possible. He listened to Grace and Cindy discuss the various cars that were pulling out onto the track and their excitement about the fireworks show afterward.
Levi had always loved watching fireworks displays. In fact, when he was sixteen, he and two of his buddies had pooled their money and purchased a huge box full of them. Unfortunately, a few fireworks had gone awry and set his friend’s father’s dry wheat field ablaze. After that fiasco and the fear of being unable to put out a fire before it consumed a season’s crop, Levi had left detonating fireworks to the professionals and gone into town to watch the show with his parents.
“Right, Levi?” Grace asked, drawing him back to the moment and her conversation with Cindy.
“I missed what you said, Grace. I’m sorry.”
“I was just telling Cindy about our plans to go fishing next weekend. Didn’t you say there would be trout?”
He nodded. “You’re welcome to come along, Cindy. I can fill a can of worms just for you.”
Cindy wrinkled her nose and tossed him a look of revulsion. “No, thank you. A day spent putting slimy things on hooks to pull slimy things out of stinky water in the broiling July heat is not my idea of a good time, but thanks for offering.”
Levi chuckled. “You sure know how to suck the fun right out of an outdoorsy adventure.”
“Perhaps we should go shopping instead,” Grace said with mock seriousness.
Levi groaned in misery. “Not that. Why would you punish me like that? Haven’t I already served my shopping sentence time for the year?”
“You were pretty handy to have around that day at the mall, especially with Tommy and Rick.” Cindy leaned around Grace to grin at him. “The boys were asking about you when I saw them Sunday afternoon.”
“Maybe the next time I’m over at your apartment, I’ll pop by and swap howdies with them.”
Grace giggled. “If you add a little more drawl to your voice, Tex, the boys will think you’ve walked right out of a set for western television show.”
Before Levi could reply, the first race of the evening was announced. The odors of exhaust and burning rubber blended with dust, sweat, popcorn, and cotton candy in a confusing mixture of smells.
Levi scooted closer to Grace, slipped his arm around her, and breathed deeply of her pineapple fragrance. With it filling his nose and her close to his side, he was able to block out the noise of the crowd and focus on the cars racing.
As the evening faded into darkness and the lights around the track came on, the announcer concluded the races for the evening and announced the winners. Prizes were given, then the track was cleared, and the fireworks show began.
At first, it was the kind of fireworks any kid could pick up at the corner store. Then the explosions grew higher and louder.
Levi’s ears began to ring as the smell of gunpowder and smoke assaulted his nostrils. When one of the fireworks emitted a shrill whistle before exploding with a thunderous boom, he felt like he’d fallen back into a war zone. Heat consumed him as he yanked open the snaps on his shirt and fanned his cowboy hat in front of his face, desperate to cool off as a woozy feeling settled over him. The fireworks faded in the distance until his mind convinced him he was no longer at the raceway but back in Vietnam in the midst of a battle zone. Blackness seeped into him until he couldn’t see anything but darkness.
“Levi?” He could hear Grace’s voice from what seemed miles away.
“Levi!” she called again, but he couldn’t get to her. He was too lost in the terror of his past to return to the present.
“You!Willyouhelpus? Please?” Grace motioned to two young men seated across the row from where she sat with Cindy and Levi.
The day had been filled with joy and fun, and the evening at the raceway, watching cars drag race had been something new and exciting.
She hadn’t given a thought to Levi experiencing a problem with the fireworks, and neither had he. But she knew the minute something was wrong. He’d pulled away from her and placed his hands over his ears. Then he’d looked like he might be sick before he ripped his shirt open and fanned his face with his hat.
He got a faraway look in his eyes and slumped in his seat, like he’d blacked out. There was no possibility she and Cindy could get him out of the stands without help, but he needed to leave immediately.
Grace had seen this type of reaction to stimulus many, many times at the hospital. It could be a sound or a smell or even the sight of something that would cause a soldier to relive a traumatic moment from his time at war.
They needed to get Levi out of the stands. When he came to, he might still think he was in Vietnam and defend himself. If he were cognizant of his surroundings, she had no doubt he’d be mortified at what had happened.
Despite what he was likely to think, people were too involved in watching the fireworks to pay any attention to them.
