“The drivers’ meeting is, but chapel isn’t. I’ve never seen him here early enough for the service.”
Later that afternoon, Dawn sat on the top of Bryan’s pit box, watching the race. “You’ve been awfully quiet,” Travis said.
“Concentrating on the race,” Dawn answered. “Do you think Bryan will make it all the way through the race?”
“I think so. He’s feeling pretty good. He wants to try, but it’s early. He could change his mind after it gets really hot in that car.”
“Is Kenny ready if you need him?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. I’m going to get something to drink. Do you want something?”
“Sure. I’ll take a bottle of water.”
Dawn unplugged her headset and climbed down off the box. She fished two bottles out of the cooler and was wiping the moisture off them when she heard the crash. She turned suddenly and noticed that everyone was looking toward turn 4. She ran around the pit box to see what was going on. What she saw caused her stomach to drop to her knees. There in the grass, just past the entrance to pit road, sat Jeremiah’s car on its top.
“Oh, God. Oh, God!” Dawn prayed. She grabbed hold of the pit wall for support. There was no movement inside the car. She desperately wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. An ambulance whizzed by, temporarily blocking Dawn’s view. “Please, please, please!” she begged God as she continued to watch. “Lord, he was just opening his heart to you again. Please don’t stop that now.” Suddenly, she remembered all the times that she forgot to read her Bible or pray. “I’ll do better. I promise,” she pleaded with God. “Just let him be okay.” Still no movement coming from Jeremiah’s car. Dawn felt someone coming up behind her, holding her elbow to steady her. From the corner of her eye, she could see that it was Ted.
“C’mon, buddy,” he whispered. “Open that window-net and let us know that you’re okay.” Still nothing from the car. The emergency crews were there now. Someone was kneeling beside the car, reaching in. “What’s going on?” Dawn asked as a single tear ran down her cheek.
“He’ll be okay,” Ted said, trying to reassure her. “He’s a big, tough guy, and these cars have so many safety features. He’ll be okay. He’s probably just stuck in the car because it’s on its top. That happens sometimes.” The safety crew finally had the window-net open, and Dawn could see Jeremiah moving around inside the car.
“Thank you, God,” Dawn whispered. She hadn’t even realized until that second that she had been holding her breath. She could see Jeremiah trying to get out of the car, but he wasn’t having much luck. The EMTs finally pulled him from the car. He lay on the ground at first then rolled over on his side. The EMTs were trying to hold him still but they weren’t successful. Then he made it up to his hands and knees. One of the emergency workers removed his helmet. Jeremiah shook his head, obviously trying to clear the cobwebs. Dawn stepped forward, going out there to check on him for herself. She had to know that he was okay. Ted’s grip on her elbow tightened, stopping her.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “They’ll take him to the infield care center. Go meet them there.”
“Okay. Thank you,” Dawn said, still not looking away. She watched until Jeremiah was safely in the ambulance and the doors closed after him. Then she turned and ran to the care center as fast as she could.
Dawn rounded the corner of the garage, and she could see the infield care center a few yards away. She got just a glance of Jeremiah’s head as the stretcher was pushed inside. Jeremiah’s crew chief and crew members were ahead of Dawn, and she could see the concerned looks on their faces. “Oh, God,” Dawn continued to pray as she ran, “please let him be okay.” Dawn arrived in the infield care center to see a group of doctors and nurses gather behind a curtain. She could hear Jeremiah’s voice coming from the same area.
“Leave me alone!” She heard him say. “I’m okay. I said leave me alone. Let me out of here.” Dawn could also hear the doctors trying to calm him down. It didn’t sound like it was working. “You are not sticking that needle in my arm. Get that thing away from me. I mean it!”
By that time, Dawn had made her way closer to the crew, just outside the curtain. She stood next to Wes. “Is he okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered, without looking away from Jeremiah. “He hit his head, so he’s a little woozy. Lucky for us, he is really hardheaded.”
“It doesn’t sound like he is cooperating with the doctors.”
“He isn’t. That’s the hardheaded part. He’s terrified of needles.”
“He told me that story,” Dawn said.
“I can hear you two talking about me,” came Jeremiah’s voice from inside the curtained area.
That’s when one of the doctors poked his head outside the curtain. “Can one of you help us talk some sense into him?”
“Knock it off!” Wes said.
“I’ll knock it off when they knock it off!”
Wes’s only response was to throw his hands in the air and look up.
“Strike one,” the doctor said. “Miss, do you want to give it a try?”
“Can I come closer?” Dawn asked.
“Yes,” the doctor answered. The doctors and nurses moved out of the way so that she could stand next to the bed. That was when she got a good look at Jeremiah. Other than a nasty-looking bump above his left eye, he looked pretty good. Once she reached the bedside, she took his hand and held it. It felt so warm as she squeezed it. She leaned in closer and looked into his eyes. He looked so scared.
“One of the signs of a concussion is that you act a little crazy because you’ve hurt yourself. So as you fuss and fight, it makes the doctors think it’s because of your injury. So calm down, be rational, answer their questions, and cooperate with them. Then they can assess you properly and let you go home, if you’re okay.”
“What about the needles?” he asked, still holding her hand, intently looking into her eyes. With her free hand, she pushed a strand of hair out of his eyes.
“What is the needle for?” she asked the doc, never looking away from Jeremiah.
“We need to take a little blood, to make sure that he wasn’t under the influence of anything. It’s a NASCAR rule.”
“Can you do that with a finger stick?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Why?” Jeremiah asked, tearing his gaze away from Dawn to look at the doctor.
“We need more than just a drop. We have several tests to run.”
Jeremiah turned back to look at Dawn again. Without a word between them, he asked her a question with his eyes. “Yes. I’ll stay with you,” she answered.
Dawn, Jeremiah, and his crew left the care center about forty-five minutes later. The media was waiting on them. One of the TV pit reporters asked Jeremiah for an interview, and he agreed. Dawn tried to step away, but he grabbed her hand and held it. He only let her go far enough away to be out of the camera shot. They waited for a few seconds. Then the cameraman counted them down from five, and the red light on the camera came on. “I’m standing here with Jeremiah Jones who has just left the infield care center.” When he finished, the reporter turned to Jeremiah as the camera zoomed out to a two-shot. “What happened out there?” he asked Jeremiah.
“I’m not real sure. One second I’m coming out of turn 4, and the next second, I’m in the wall. I may have clipped the guy in front of me on the way back down the track, but I don’t know. I’ll have to look at the tape. Anyway, the next thing I remember, I’m in the back of the ambulance surrounded by paramedics.”
“It looks like you blew a tire. Had you been having trouble before?”
“No, not that I recall,” Jeremiah replied. “I took a hard hit to my hard head. I remember that the #91 was running fine. I had been talking to my crew chief about our next pit stop. A few seconds later, wham!”
/> “Well, thank you for your time. We’re all glad that you’re okay. I know you’re ready to get back to your motor coach to get some rest.” Then he turned back to the camera. “Back to you guys upstairs.” With that, the light on the camera went off. The reporter shook Jeremiah’s hand, wished him a speedy recovery, and thanked him again for the interview. Then the reporter and cameraman walked away, looking for their next story.
“He was right. You need to get some rest,” Dawn said, trying to lead him to his motor coach.
“I know that I need to take it easy, but not yet. Since I’m out of the race, I’m going back to Charlotte. I’ll get some sleep on the plane.”
“Okay,” Dawn said. “Do you want me to walk you back to the coach and help you get your stuff?”
“You can walk with me if you want, but I’m not going back to the coach. One of the guys went to get my stuff. There should be a car waiting to take me to the airport by the time I get to the parking lot. You can walk out there with me if you want.”
“Okay.” They walked hand in hand toward the parking lot. Somewhere in her mind she knew it wasn’t right before she knew where her relationship with Jeremiah was going, and she didn’t want to lead him on. But it felt so comfortable and so right that she couldn’t let go. The parking lot was pretty much empty since the race was still going on, so they were able to walk undisturbed. When they reached the parking lot, Jeremiah’s car had not yet arrived.
“So much for ‘waiting on you when you get there’.” Jeremiah said as he looked around. Then he turned back toward Dawn. “Thank you,” he told her.
“For what?” she asked.
“For being there for me, for talking some sense into me, for caring about me,” he answered.
“I didn’t see the accident. I had turned away to get something to drink. I heard the crash and looked to see what had happened. I saw your car sitting there on its top. I was so scared.” A tear ran down her cheek.
“I’m so sorry that I did that to you,” he said as he wiped the tear away with his thumb.
“You didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I know. It wasn’t my first wreck, and it won’t be my last. It still makes me feel bad when I scare the people that I care about.” He dropped his head to kiss her, but a pair of headlights shone on them.
“There’s your ride,” Dawn whispered.
“It’ll wait.”
“What about the plane?”
“It’s a private jet. It’ll wait, too.”
“Oh,” she said as he dipped his head the remaining distance to brush his lips against hers. He pulled her closer attempting to deepen the kiss, but Dawn stepped back.
“What’s wrong?” Jeremiah asked, but he didn’t let her go.
“I’m supposed to be working. Bryan and the crew are probably looking for me.”
“So you need to go?”
At that moment, Dawn’s cell phone rang. She got it out of the holder on her hip and looked at caller ID. “It’s Ted. I bet Travis told him to call me.”
“Then you better answer it.”
“Hello,” Dawn said. “I’m in the parking lot with Jeremiah. He’s okay. I walked him out to the parking lot. He’s going back to Charlotte early.” Dawn paused, listening to what Ted was saying. “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Bye.” She looked at Jeremiah. “The race is almost over. Everybody just made what should be their last pit stop. They are looking for me to help put stuff away.”
“How many laps are left?”
“Thirty-five”
Who’s winning?”
“Sean Vaughn is leading Randy Brown by about two seconds. Ronnie Miller is third, followed by Tucker Ruff and Josh Mefford.”
“They’re all ahead of me in points,” Jeremiah said with an exasperated sigh. “This DNF will kill me!”
“Don’t say that, especially considering all that happened tonight.”
“You’re right. That was a bad choice of words.”
“I need to go,” Dawn said.
“Me too,” Jeremiah said as he looked down at their linked fingers and smiled. “One last kiss first?”
“Yeah.” She smiled back at him. She stood on her tiptoes to meet him halfway as he leaned in. The kiss was brief, and he held her for just a moment. Then he released her and watched as she walked then jogged back into the track. When he knew she was safely inside, he got into the car and went home.
Dawn called Jeremiah the next morning from the race shop and got his answering machine. She left a quick message, saying she was checking on him and asking him to call her when he got a chance. She hung up the phone and looked up to see Bryan standing beside her cubicle. “Do you need something?” she asked him.
“The videotapes of yesterday’s pit stops. Travis said that you have them.”
“I do,” Dawn said with a yawn as she fished through her bag looking for the tapes.
“Tired?” he asked.
“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep last night,” she answered as she continued to rummage through the bag. “I swear that they were in here a while ago.” She stopped looking in the bag. “I went over to the filing cabinet,” she said as she retraced her steps. She looked inside, but they weren’t there. She slammed the cabinet shut. “Where did I put those things?” Dawn said with a frustrated grunt.
“It’s no big deal. We were going to watch them this afternoon. As long as you have them by two o’clock, it’ll be okay.”
“I swear that I just had them,” Dawn said as she continued to look.
“Look later.”
“You don’t understand,” Dawn said as she stood there. “It bugs me to lose things.” She turned her back to Bryan, but he caught her reflection in the computer monitor. He could see tears in her eyes.
“Hey, it’s nothing to get upset about,” Bryan said as he stepped closer to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she answered as she stepped away.
“I haven’t known you long, but I’ve figured out that you’re pretty tough. You don’t cry unless you have a good reason. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” she repeated as she swiped at a tear.
“Turn around, and tell me that to my face.”
Dawn took a deep breath and turned to face Bryan. She looked him right in the eyes and said, “Nothing is wrong.”
“You’re lying,” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought we were friends. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Dawn gave up. She slumped down in her chair and rested her head in one hand. Bryan got a chair from nearby and sat down opposite her. Dawn sighed then paused while trying to figure out what to say. “How did Valerie react the first time she saw you wreck?”
“She freaked out,” Bryan answered as he leaned back in his chair. “We started dating during the off-season. We had been dating for about five months when she saw me wreck. It was the May race at Talladega. There was a crash in front of me that I couldn’t avoid. I hit the car in front of me and got turned sideways. A car from behind t-boned me. Then there was a domino effect involving about ten cars. I was somewhere in the middle.”
“Were you hurt?”
“No. I had to take the mandatory trip to the infield care center, but I was okay. Val didn’t come to the care center, and she wasn’t waiting for me when I came out. I walked back to the coach and found Valerie there, packing her bags. She was crying. I told her not to worry about it because it was just a part of racing. She said that was the problem. When I asked her what she meant she told me that she couldn’t stand to watch me race, week after week, wondering when I would wreck again. Wondering how bad I might be hurt the next time or if I would be killed. We had a huge fight and broke up.”
“You broke up with her?”
“She broke up with me.”
“We had been broken up for about a month. I was miserable. I realize now that I was in love with her, but I didn’t know it then. I was a complete grouch. A buddy got tired of my sorry attitude. He set me up with a good friend of his. We went out to this nice restaurant. What I didn’t know was that it was a real set-up. My buddy asked Valerie out. They showed up at the same restaurant. I took one look at Valerie, out with someone else, and got so jealous. I couldn’t sit there, so I left. My buddy followed me outside. I have never wanted to kill someone before in my life. He laughed because his plan was working. So I punched him.”
“You hit him?” Dawn exclaimed.
“I did. The punk hit the ground and just lay there, laughing at me. I was going to hit him again, but the women showed up. Valerie got in my face and told me that if I put a finger on him she would never speak to me again. I helped my buddy off the ground. Then he walked away with his accomplice, my date. Valerie and I just stood there staring at each other for a while. We started talking, and I told her how miserable I was without her. She told me that she had been miserable, too. She said that she would still worry about me, but that was better than being without me. We kissed and made up. I bought her an engagement ring the next day. We got married at the end of the season. This Thanksgiving will be our sixth anniversary.”
“How sweet. Do you still talk to the buddy?”
“Every day. It was Travis.”
“No way!”
“I’m serious,” Bryan replied. “Ask him about it sometime. He’ll tell you.” Bryan leaned in closer and propped his elbow on the corner of Dawn’s desk to look her in the eye. “I’m guessing that your question has something to do with Jeremiah’s crash yesterday.”
Dawn sighed and leaned back in her chair. Then she covered her face with her hands. She sat like that for a moment then dropped her hands to look at Bryan. He could see that the tears were back in her eyes. “I thought I was okay with it. I was so scared at first, but I went to the care center and saw that he was okay. I even walked him out to the parking lot afterward. I came back to the track and helped pack everything up. I slept on the plane, but I got home last night, and I couldn’t sleep a wink. All I could do was lie there and think about all the what-ifs. I’m so confused. I don’t know what to think.”
Revved Up Hearts Page 13
