NEW GROUND... with some shocks (Part 99j)

Returning home I saw that Marge’s car was parked next door. It was the first time since the ”incident“ and I was curious to know the status. It didn’t take long to find out as she was inside with Elle. Although nothing more had happened she and her husband had made the decision to leave the area. The company the husband worked for had no problem with the decision so now all they had to do was to gather up their belongings and be on their way. Marge indicated that her husband was up at the office arranging for the ”boys“ to sell their unit. When she saw her husband return she left to join him and I was left with an upset wife. As she walked down the path it came to me that it was just a year ago that Lil, the previous tenant on that pad, had left.

Elle liked and got along well with Marge. She’d gotten a commitment from her to look after the kids a couple of days a week when she was ready to return to substitute teaching, Now Marge was leaving and Elle had no one but her mother who had told her she would only do it one day a week. It was ”back to the drawing board“ for her/us on that subject. With school opening the following Wednesday Elle was fearful that most babysitters would now all be taken.

I kept a low profile the rest of the day as well as Friday. Elle’s mood improved substantially by Saturday so my going off racing didn’t bring on a batch of snide comments. But there was one and I immediately shot back that she’d gotten her wish. She didn’t know what I meant and I told her that I wasn’t planning on racing the sailboat on Sunday. That did make her smile but she tried to hide it. Having told her my decision I now had my excuse for Bobbi. I’d continued to be conflicted about having taken her panties and I was sure my guilt would show through if I were to see her. The only thing was that I would still have to go get the boat from the sailing club and bring it to my parents garage to store for the Winter.

By winning the feature race the previous Saturday night a number of people I didn’t know became interested in me and the race car. One was a young boy (about 13 or 14) who lived just down the road. He’d come around on the nights I’d be working on it. When I was hitching the tow bar to my car he appeared and asked if he could go to the races with me. I told him it was OK with me if his parents would let him. He was gone in a flash and within 10 minutes he was back with his mother. ”Chucky“ wanted to be part of my pit crew and after his mother talked with me he became my first official one. I remember him telling his mother that he was going to drive a race car someday as she walked away.

At the track I’d completely forgotten about my winnings from the week before. Week to week we never knew how much we’d won because it depended upon how many people were in the grandstands watching. As I signed in I was given a little brown envelope with the money in it. On the outside was the number $71. That, together with the money from my grandfather and father, was the $150 that I’d wanted to give to ”Pop” as down payment on his race car. When I handed it to him I immediately started to worry about that car getting wrecked before I took complete ownership of it. I began to doubt the wisdom of my decision to buy it before the end of the racing season.

Because I’d won the last feature race my starting position was somewhere in the middle of the field. As soon as the race started I got hit from behind. It wasn’t enough to spin me off the track but I remember my head snapping back and forth. At each end of the track I’d get hit. I couldn’t make out who was behind me but it was getting me mad. The cars in front of me were all bunched together so I couldn’t pass anyone but this guy was impatient and continued to beat on my back bumper. It was as if he didn’t have any brakes and was using me to slow down for the turns. It ended up being one of those races in which the really good cars that started in the back never got to the front. A guy who’d never won before finished first and I ended up 10th... and my back bumper had a big bow in the middle of it from being hit so many times. Chucky told me that I should go over to the guy who’d been beating on me and “punch him out”, or words to that effect. At 6’ 1“ and about 155 pounds I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and stayed put but appreciated the support (verbal) that I got from Chucky. I did go check on the condition of the car I was buying and it was fine. Whew!


We went on to watch the main event for the fast cars and ended up seeing one of the most violent crashes I’d ever seen. What made it even worse was that it was my friend Rick. He was in a ”dog fight” for the track championship and had been leading in the points up to that time. He wasn’t hurt but his car was pretty much destroyed. I felt really bad for him but didn’t know what, if anything, I could do to help him. I didn’t get much sleep that night.

The party for our fathers was scheduled for 6pm. Elle’s period had let up some and she was feeling much better. The girls were still pestering to be able to go to the beach so we left early so they’d have some time before the party. It was perfect for me because while they were doing that I could go pick up the sailboat and get it put away for the Winter. Arriving at the sailing club after all the boats had been launched for racing meant there weren’t as many people around to ask why I wasn’t sailing. The annual meeting where the prizes for the season were handed out was scheduled for that night. I had no reason to go so I made a point of saying good bye to those who I knew that were there. When I went into the clubhouse I found Herb, the guy who’d asked if I was going to sell my boat.

After the usual pleasantries he wasted no time in asking if I’d put any thought into the possible sale of my boat. He pointed to it and asked why I wasn’t sailing. I was totally unprepared for this conversation. I don’t remember what I said but cut the talk off fairly quickly. As I readied the boat for trailing I got to thinking about how the Summer and sailing had gone. I was really disturbed about the new class of sailboat (Windmill) that had been introduced and the fact that there was now a dearth of crew people available. Elle had pretty much let it be known that with the new baby she wouldn’t be crewing anymore and I’d struggled to find a replacement for her. Just about the time I was ready to hitch the boat to the car Herb walked by on the way to his car. I looked at him and yelled out $1200. He stopped and yelled back “You’ve got a deal! 

To be continued...