The Legend

by Shey Stahl

  He smiled that same boyish grin he always had. “I will be sixteen in a week or so, I’m going to try to be responsible and keep the drink count out of the double digits.”

  “Oh well, hell. Forget I said anything.” I replied sarcastically rolling my eyes at him.

  I heard him shuffle back into the family room once I started peeling the potatoes for dinner. Tommy asked him where Cole was, the two were seldom apart.

  “Fuck if I know.” Casten chuckled. “Last night he showed up in my room as three in the morning wearing plastic gloves and a table cloth. I didn’t ask for an explanation; just let him crash on the floor.”

  “Is he still there?” Tommy asked.

  “Nope. When I woke up he was gone, cap an all.”

  It’s funny to me that when you’re younger you think your parents never did the shit you did but our kids knew better. We wrote the book on how “not” to be. As Charlie once told me, “If you can’t be a good example for today’s youth, be a horrible one. Either way, you’re helping out.”

  Quietly, I laughed to myself at my crazy father’s antics when I felt familiar warm hands wrap around my waist. His breath, just as warm, blew lightly over my neck sending goose bumps down my spine. “Do I get to hear the joke?” he asked softly kissing the shell of my ear and then across my neck.

  “I was just thinking of Charlie.” I wiggled loose from him smiling as I looked over his tired features. “Are you okay?”

  His eyes searched mine before returning the smile. “I’m fine honey. Just tired.”

  “Taking the wrong plane will take a lot out of you.”

  “Apparently.” He exhaled as though he’d run a marathon.

  “Do you want to take a nap before dinner?”

  “Nah, Justin just got here so I figured I’d hang out with him for a while.”

  “Okay, well I’ll be in there shortly. I just need to get these appetizers going.”

  Arie walked in just then with Lexi and Lily holding Jack. “You need help mom?”

  Jameson smiled before hugging all three girls and then headed in the family room where the boys were now gathered watching football.

  Axel made his way in there when I stepped inside to deliver the appetizers to the boys.

  Jameson smiled up at him reached for Jack who was now in his arms. “Hey buddy, how’d it feel to win Turkey night?”

  Axel smiled reaching for the bacon wrapped scallops. “Yeah, it feels good.”

  Casten leaned over to take Jack away from Jameson. More than likely he was going to use little Jack to impress this girl. I don’t gather she needed much encouragement though. Casten was adorable.

  Jameson gave in eventually and gave up Jack to Casten.

  Spencer and Alley showed up shortly after Casten broke his rule for the double digits. Spencer limped over to me, threw his burly arms around me. He had a recent knee replacement. All the years of working on the pit crew had taken its toll on his body.

  Once the eating was underway, our family did what it did best. We were dysfunctional.

  Charlie and Noah showed up, got in a fight with one of Cole’s friends. Cole eventually showed up wearing a speedo and a Christmas hat. We found out that night him and Casten both had nipple rings. Lane had a tattoo of Tinkerbell on his ass that he surprisingly, after six shots of Fireball, showed us.

  Like I said, it was never dull.

  Jameson sat in the chair in the corner laughing at his kids while I sat securely on his watching Nancy and Casten drinking wine. He always had a way to get his grandmother in the Christmas spirit. Though the no one said it, Casten was what kept her going. They were never far apart. If Nancy wanted to go to a dirt track and watch racing, Casten went with her. If she wanted to go get a pedicure, Casten went with her.

  His spirited demeanor was hard not to be happy around and Nancy appreciated that.

  I began to realize while sitting there that everything between us happened for a reason and all these people brought in and out of our lives for a reason. Where I thought Casten was a complete accident, he was what pulled Jameson’s mom and kept her going after Jimi’s death.

  An accident that had Jameson hanging up his helmet and eventually retirement lead Arie to Easton, probably the sweetest boy you’d ever meet.

  And an arrangement that began out of pure sexual frustration led to a little boy who changed our entire lives and the lives of people all over the world.

  Later that night after everyone had left, Jameson and I were walking back inside the house after saying to Justin and Ami when Jameson reached for my arm. He whirled me around so I was facing him, his lips crashed urgently to mine. Pulling my lower lip inside his mouth, he tugged gently, his breathing increasing. “I’ve been waiting all night,” he shook his head gently pressing his forehead to mine. “...to kiss you like that.”

  The Christmas tree in the living room lit up the foyer we were now standing in. His eyes sparkled with the hunger as he leaned in to find my lips again.

  Instinctively, my legs wrapped around his waist and he carried me with more speed than I thought he had in him to our room.

  He lost his footing once inside the room and fell on top of me landing on the bed. That’s exactly where I wanted him too. There was nothing more pleasing than the feeling of my husband weight on top of me. I couldn’t describe it but it was just the idea of this was him and me, together.

  I watched him carefully, reveling in every touch, every moan, and every hitch of his breath knowing I was causing the sensations, and more so, he was feeling exactly the same way I was.

  We really were one soul.

  Overtime we went through cycles. People were added, people were taken away from us. But we stayed together. Together is where we belonged. We had no idea who would be added or even taken away eventually but I knew with this man by my side, we could do anything. So many times it tore families apart, but not the Riley family. We weren’t strangers to heartache but we had one thing that kept us going, we had each other.

  Bench Racing – Jameson

  There should be rules to retirement and things that you should and shouldn’t do. One of them should be camping in the winter with your buddies.

  “I don’t understand you,” Spencer scolded. “You were a spotter for twenty fucking years but yet you can’t find the fucking campsite to save your ass.”

  We were lost in the Croatan National Forest. I hated to go camping but the boys decided it would be a good time. I reminded them that I had never had a good experience camping and certainly didn’t do well with animals. None of that matter to these assholes.

  “Let it go, jerk. I got us lost. Big deal?”

  “Big deal?” I gasped pushing Aiden from behind. “We are miles from civilization. We lost my son, and Spencer broke his ankle. That’s a big deal.”

  “Technically,” Willie added waving his drink around. “We didn’t lose Axel. He’s the one that said he could find his way back to the campsite.”

  We eventually did find our campsite and sure enough, Axel was there with Cole and Lane. “Nice of you guys to show up.” Axel said less than amused watching Willie and Tommy.

  I threw myself down in a chair. After carrying my two hundred and twenty pound brother up the side of a mountain, I was exhausted. I also wanted my wife. So far we’d be out here two nights and I was retired. Didn’t this mean I could spend all my time with my wife?

  “Fuck you man!” Noah shouted shoving Cole as they argued about god knows what.

  “What a disaster.” Axel huffed sitting next to me with a beer in hand and one for me. “Remind me never to go camping again.”

  “They’re drinking 50/50 Vodka water mix out of camelbacks.” I told Axel. “Disaster would be a compliment at this point.”

  Casten leaned back against the cooler.

  “What are you doing?” I kicked my youngest son’s leg. “You started them on that shit. Take it away from them.”

  “I’m watching. This shit is not ending without bl
ood.”

  “I want to know who told them this was a good idea.” Spencer asked from his place on the ground surrounded by ice packs. He may or may not have taken a tumble down a fairly steep hill when I pushed him. In my defense, I helped him back up and carried him and his broken ankle back to camp.

  “That’s not the problem,” Casten grinned. “The problem is that no one stopped them.”

  Amazingly, and I’m not sure how, I convinced these jerks to leave early since Spencer had broken bones and now Noah and Cole needed stitches. Turns out that 50/50 mixture was a bad idea but it did help get Spencer back home without too much complaining.

  When we got back home, Sway searched my entire body looking for any sign of a bite mark from an animal. I was proud to say that I escaped unharmed for one in my life.

  “Do you mean to tell me that you actually went into the woods and came out without any scratches?” she asked running her hands over my two week growth of facial hair.

  “Yep,” I announced proudly. “Spencer broke his ankle though.”

  “How’d that happen?”

  I smiled. “I pushed him down a hill for trying to trip me.”

  “You better watch out.” Sway warned working on my belt. “Spencer is going to get you back now.”

  Shitty part was that I knew that already. You don’t mess with Spencer and not expect a payback.

  Bench Racing – Sway

  Spencer knows that Jameson is afraid of a few things in life. Most of which involve substances on his skin but there are a few others that most find even more entertaining. His fear of dildos. And I’m not talking about a vibrator. I’m talking about those floppy plastic rubbery ones that look as if they are alive if you touch them.

  We shared this fear.

  Spencer used this to his advantage often.

  Spencer was also big on photography.

  It was no surprise that he would frequently take pictures of dildos and send them to Jameson. Jameson never appreciated this and destroyed a handful of expensive cameras for that very reason.

  One afternoon, before we headed out to Williams Grove for the weekend, Jameson had bought a bag of gummy worms and left them on the counter. Later that night as we watched a movie, Jameson had the gummy worms in hand.

  Spencer, sporting a grin, came in and asked Jameson if he would like to look over his newest pictures.

  “Not if you want me to destroy another camera.” Jameson replied intently focused on the television.

  “Ah hell man, don’t be a dick.” Spencer relaxed into the couch and set the camera on the coffee table in front of him. “I got some good shots of Sharon Speedway last night.”

  An hour passed and Jameson tossed the empty bag of gummy worms aside. Spencer giggled and said he was tired. He went home but left the camera on the coffee table.

  At some point Jameson’s curiosity for the photos taken at Sharon got the best of him and he picked up the camera. He hadn’t gotten into about two of them when the camera was hurled against the wall and Jameson took off after Spencer. “Goddamn him!”

  The camera hadn’t been completely destroyed so I took a look, curious.

  Spencer had placed a dildo in that bag of gummy worms and photographed it.

  To this day, no one knows where that dildo disappeared to.

  You never knew what each day would bring in our house now that Jameson was not racing. And honestly, he seemed bored at times. One afternoon I went grocery shopping with Casten, worst idea ever, and then came home to Jameson in the movie room with Jack.

  “Oh, Jack’s here!” I wasn’t wild about being a grandma but little Jack could melt anyone’s heart and have you acting like those weirdo grandma’s who coo and make funny faces at the baby.

  That was me now.

  I also had to think of a new name for myself now that I changed classifications. The problem was that maybe I was getting old because I couldn’t think of anything as cool as the Mama Wizard. Gizard didn’t sound right and Grammy Wizard didn’t sound too hot. I was at a loss.

  In the middle of my weirdo-grandma-cooing, I noticed a necklace around Jack’s chubby little neck that I was sure Axel wouldn’t have put there and Lily, yeah, no, shouldn’t have done that either. “What’s around Jack’s neck?” I reached for it twisting it to see. Jack immediately started slobbering all over me and grabbed my hand to suck on it.

  “What?” he leaned forward to see what I was referring to but sighed like this was way too much effort for him to do so.

  “That...” I point to the makeshift necklace, “around his neck.”

  “Oh, that.” Jameson grinned and settled back into his position with his feet up. “It’s a bottle opener so I wouldn’t have to go to the kitchen. You really have to keep an eye on this kid.”

  Glancing to the right, I noticed the cooler of beer at his feet. “My god, does Axel know you’re watching him.

  “No. Don’t tell him either. This is between me and Lily.”

  I left my husband alone but took Jack away for his safety when Willie and Tommy showed up. It seemed now that Jameson had retired and he didn’t need to prepare for Speedweeks that were approaching, he watched a lot of television. This meant that his sidekicks, Willie and Tommy, spent a great deal of time at our house. It never bothered me because let’s face it, they were all entertaining.

  Lily and Axel showed up to claim their kid later that night and I kept my mouth shut about the bottle opener necklace. I had a feeling this wasn’t anything new though. Jack was being raised at dirt tracks, I’m sure he had already been subjected to worse.

  Lily and Axel ended up staying for dinner that night and then eventually just stayed the night when Axel started drinking with Jameson. I loved all of it. Having our family around more often was exactly what we needed. It was times like that though that I couldn’t help but think, “How long will this last?”

  Immediately I focused on what was in front of me. Our family together.

  And Lily, pissed.

  “All right,” Lily huffed holding up a pair of jeans. “Who was the motherfucker who put my pre-pregnancy jeans on the bed to taunt me?”

  Casten laughed holding his stomach. “I thought you would like to know what you used to look like.”

  “Casten!” Axel and me scolded him only Axel went a step further and punched his shoulder.

  Casten fell over dramatically acting hurt as he always did but laughed despite this. “It was a joke!” he screamed when Lane and Axel dog piled him. That turned into a wrestling match in my kitchen. Nothing new.

  After we ordered pizza, Jameson came in wearing all black and I gathered he was about to one up his brother again.

  “I’ve got some things to do tonight.” Jameson spoke as if this was extremely important.

  “Yeah, what’s that?” Axel asked him. “Are you planning on robbing a gas station?”

  “I’m gonna weld Spencer’s gate shut today.”

  “Sounds like fun,” I said jumping to my feet. “I’ll help you.”

  On the way there, pushing a welder up Spencer’s gravel driveway, I asked. “Do you know how to weld?”

  “No, not really,” Jameson admitted flipping down his welding helmet. “But how hard can it be?” Sparks burst from the weld spraying back at us immediately. We sat there for a minute as he adjusted the settling and then more sparks flew back at us. I jumped back when some got me in the face.

  Jameson groaned. “Oh man, please don’t let this burn my hair. It just grew back.”

  Then I smelled something burning and it wasn’t the gate. No, the gate was nearly cut in half. Jameson didn’t know how to weld and his pants were on fire.

  Jameson looked down to see his jeans smoking and stripped quicker than I ever saw.

  Turns out he had the voltage up to high and it welded right through the gate.

  Pushing the welder back home, with no pants on, I had to laugh. “Nice going,”

  “Shut up,” was his only response.

  Wh
en we got back to the house, Lane, Axel and Casten were standing outside the garage laughing. Apparently, they were the ones that turned up the voltage.

  It wasn’t long and Jameson moved on from seeming bored to actually being bored, which I knew was going to happen sooner or later. He eventually turned to reality TV like everyone else in our family had at one point or another. Since Spencer had retired too, they were his TV buddies along with Casten and Lane, who was no longer racing in the GNCC series after he broke his leg.

  We had a whole crew who would gather on Monday nights and watch a show where you voted on who was on it and what they did. It was ridiculously captivating and Jameson was just as into it.

  “Did I miss anything?” Jameson asked with an armful of goodies and drinks with him.

  Axel and Casten chuckled as they sat next to him. They were like a bunch of little girls with all the laughing. Casten reached forward and stole the popcorn as he walked by. Jameson tossed a bag of M&M’s at me that he held under his arm in my lap.

  Keeping the bag of gummy worms for himself, he threw himself into the leather chair beside me. “I hate you for this.”

  Casten smirked at me. “You know dad—”

  He wasn’t able to finish before Jameson had silenced his smart ass with a pillow.

  Jameson and the boys spent the rest of the night in their watching that show, captivated by something they said they’d never watch. After four hours, they were still there and I came back in to see that the boys had fallen asleep and Jameson was still wide awake. His head tipped my direction. “I can’t believe this shit. We should cancel the cable.”

  I think Jameson had turned to reality TV because missed racing.

  Jameson had a hard time when Easton would come over and talk to him about different aspects of racing because deep down, he missed it. But when the sprint car boys stopped by and talked about what they did in Sharon Speedway or how they ran at Lernerville, I saw that same fire in his eyes I had always saw. The fire to race. I knew when he retired that it wouldn’t be the end of his career racing, it couldn’t be. Not when it had consumed so much of his life.