Chapter 13: Where it all ends

Nick spent that day trying to figure out what had just happened... Had it been a random one time thing?
"Can't be... Jenny is not like that" he told himself.
Maybe she was using him... nope, Jenny wasn't that kind of girl either. By mid afternoon, he still wasn't even close to having a convincing answer...
He was looking out his bedroom window, his stare fixed on the backyard side gate when his Mom called from downstairs...
"Nick... you have a visitor..."
He almost fell down the stairs in his rush to get to the front door... and there she was, chatting quietly with his Mom. There was his answer... or so he hoped.
"Hi, Nick... do you want to go for a walk with me?" Jenny asked.
Yes, his answer did come, but not in words... As soon as they were outside his house and on the sidewalk, Jenny took his right hand and guided his arm around her shoulders. Then she slid her left arm around his waist and snuggled close against him...
"Just like couples do!" the sudden thought popping in Nicks mind. "Just like couples..."
And just like that, they were dating. At first they walked without any specific direction, until...
"Hey, how about an ice cream?" Nick suggested.
"Hmm, ice cream... yeah, I'd love that."

....................

It had been almost a year since Jenny had seen him on TV, and Max had already managed to make his way to the top. With six wins out of the last eight races he had competed in, he was quickly earning the title of "Undisputed Champion" in the world racing community.
Two days after his last race; both him and Dave more or less recovered from the effects of the party they had thrown to celebrate Max's victory; they sat relaxing and chatting quietly... Dave had shown up at Max's cabin carrying two mugs with hot coffee, and they sat on comfy chairs at his porch. Max liked sitting there when he was idle and feeling lazy.
"That was a great race, mate" said Dave.
"Thanks, buddy..." Max looked at his friend and then added "but there's a 'but' coming, isn't it?
Dave seemed to be looking for the right words but since he remained silent too long, Max decided to try and help him out.
"What is it, Dave? You have concern painted all over your face."
David opened his mouth to say something, obviously changed his mind, looked away and finally said "I'd like you to take it down a couple of notches..."
Max was completely taken aback. "Take what down a couple of notches? You're not making much sense."
"Your racing... your driving style... You're taking too many chances, Max."
Max started to laugh. "Oh, come on, Dave... you're worrying for nothing."
"Worrying for nothing? Really, mate... do you know what they are calling you out there in the race tracks?"
"Oh... yeah..." Max laughed some more "Mad Max... it's kind of cool, eh?"
David sigh. He felt as if he was talking to a child. "Look, Max... you're turning quickly into quite the legend" he said and then put up a hand as he saw Max was about to reply "but I don't want to see you become a dead legend."
Max's smile vanished... he was visibly uncomfortable with the subject. He looked away and started tapping his right hand fingers on the chair armrest.
David wasn't sure he was getting through to him, so he decided to change tactics. "You are making us both obscenely rich, mate. So filthy rich we could retire now and still be rich when we die of old age."
At that point David could not keep Max from abruptly interrupting him. "Wait... what? You want me to quite racing?" there was a mix of disbelief and anger in Max's voice.
"What? No!" David was quick to reply. "Max, you're a natural... you're gifted like no other car racer I've known or heard about. And I'm not saying this because you're my friend... I truly believe you are one of the best" that changed Max's mode and got him to grin.
"Look, I honestly believe your name is going to make it into the car racing history books... When people talk about Formula 1 one hundred years from now, they will talk about you, Max." Dave stopped to sip at his coffee and then went on. "I just want those history books to tell the life story of Max; the best car racer; who kept racing until he was too old for it and then retired to live off his fame, and maybe train younger drivers, give conferences and seminars, open a car racing academy..."
Max started laughing at that point; genuinely touched and cheered by his friend's description of his future. Dave bore a dreamy expression as he envisioned those years of glory ahead... and then the look on his face suddenly changed... turned sombre.
"I don't want you to be the promising young racer that had just become a legend when he went out in a fiery ball of flames because of a horrific accident during a race."
Max wanted to reassure his friend... to tell Dave he didn't want that either. Problem was, he wasn't so sure himself... Dave was right. There was a good reason why he had earned that nickname. Mad Max. Yeah, he certainly was taking too many risks... being reckless out there. And he didn't care, but he'd do anything to go on racing; even promising his friend he'd be more careful...
He turned sombre too as he spoke the words, picked carefully and almost having to push them out of his mouth.
"You're right, Dave. I do have to slow down a bit... let it go sometimes. I don't need to win every single race."
But Max was not sombre because of the subject. He was sombre because he was lying... and he was lying to his best friend! What kind of a scumbag has he turned into?

....................

Several weeks later and all the way across the Atlantic, Jenny was trying on her wedding dress for the umpteenth time...
"Will you stop worrying already?" said Candy, a big smile on her face as she looked fondly at her friend. "You look absolutely perfect. Nick is going to fall on his butt when he sees you coming down the aisle."
Jenny and Nick were getting married that Sunday. She felt she was floating in a dream... but oddly enough, she could not decide whether it was a good or a bad one. She was in love with Nick, wasn't she? Of course she was! She knew she was... yeah, she had to be, right?
"Nick makes me happy, loves me, cares about me..." she kept repeating this over and over in her head, and still...
"You need to relax, girl. It's a big step and it's only natural to be nervous..." Candy kept going on but to Jenny it was just background noise... like a distant radio someone had forgotten to turn off. "Why don't you take off the dress, we go for a walk and I treat you to an ice cream? Ice cream cures everything! Even pre-wedding stress."
So, Jenny did as her friend said and tried her best not to let her see that something was not right.
Because, something definitely was wrong... hers was not the stress of getting married, but something else...

....................

Back across the Atlantic, in a rich villa in Portugal, activities went on as usual; but the villa's masters- owner as well as his best friend, tenant and business partner- haven't been seen around for several days. Nothing unusual about that... it happened every time there was a car race hosted in another country. What was unusual this time was that the location was Max's old home town...
"Really Max, you only leave the hotel to go to the race tracks and the straight back..." Dave was saying as they were riding the elevator to the top floor where the hotel restaurant was.
"So...?"
"There has to be someone you'd like to visit... old friends, family..."
"Nope." Max said lowering his gaze and staring at his shoes.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Dave decided to change the subject.
"Two days left before the race... we probably should go over this track details... problem spots, faster and slower stretches..."
"I've got it all figured out." Max interrupted.
"Really...?" Dave said raising an eyebrow staring at his friend. "Hmm... what about our plan; our strategy?"
"Dave, have I ever let you down?" Max said smiling, arms crossed over his chest.
Dave shook his head, looked into his friends eyes, started to say something, stopped... he then looked up at the ceiling, clearly uncomfortable...
"I'm just a bit worried about this race..." he finally said.
"Why? The race track is like any other I've raced on... the other competitors; same drivers I've been racing against for years..."
"Yeah, but you've never before raced at your old home town..."
Another awkward silence followed... thankfully broken all of a sudden by the elevator door opening to the restaurant floor.
"Come on, man... Let's eat. I'm starving. Thinking of racing always wets my appetite."

....................

It seemed like forever, but Sunday finally came. Jenny looked at herself in the mirror while waiting for the limo that would take her to the Church. She looked absolutely stunning!
The limo arrived. She got in and they left. She was the first one to be picked up, so she was alone in the huge car. Alone with her thoughts... why had they planned it that way? She'd have to ride alone in that limo until they picked up the next passengers...
"It's only a 15-minute ride to pick up your parents, Jenny. So, keep it together, girl." She murmured to herself.
Lost in thoughts as she was, she would have missed the huge electronic sign... but a traffic light stopped them, and she looked up. A fateful traffic light that had just turned red for the limo seconds before they reached the intersection... And there he was, looking gorgeous in his racing jumpsuit. And something snapped inside of her. And then she knew... that's what was wrong. She was marrying Nick, instead of the man that was still king of her heart! The man that was looking back at her with his big dark eyes from the huge electronic sign across the intersection.
"I can't do this..." she murmured.
"I beg your pardon?" asked the driver looking in his rear mirror.
"I can't do this" now louder, her voice firm and filled with resolve. Then, as she opened the limo's door and stepped out, she peeked back inside and told the driver. "Please, tell my parents I'm sorry... I'm very sorry."
Jenny closed the limo's door, run across the street and hailed a taxi. She got it and for a few seconds just sat there, speechless, unable to comprehend what she had just done. Then, some insistent noise brought her out of her trance...
"Where to, Miss?" the taxi driver asked; a certain irritation clear in his voice; for the third time.
"Oh, sorry... just collecting my thoughts... to the race tracks, please." Jenny said as she pointed with a finger to the electronic sign showing images of the already started race...

....................

About an hour earlier, before the race had started...
Dave was coming out of a short meeting with one of the local race association managers. It was a great day for them as Max; the already famous Race Champion Max; was the local kid. Max had grown up in that city, and that made him the "local celebrity". This manager had told Dave they had made record in ticket sales, and expected the publicity of having Max race there would do all kinds of good for the local race association.
Dave was just out the door when Frank; one of his team guys; found him.
"Max is suiting up." Frank told Dave. "He said he'll then go to the pits to give the car one more check and will wait for you there."
"Sounds good. Thanks, Frank" said Dave. "I'll meet you guys there in a few minutes. I forgot my sunglasses in the car. I won't be long."
Frank left for the pits as Dave headed for the parking lot. He was walking head down, mentally checking off items from his usual pre-race list... and too late did he see the guy coming at a fast pace out of a washroom.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, Sir. Are you ok...?" the guy started to say, and then stopped startled on recognizing the other man... "Dave? I can't believe of all people I've run into you! It's Ron... remember me? From High School?"
"Ron? Ron...? Four-eyes Ronald?!!" now it was Dave's turn to be startled.
"Not any more" said Ron chuckling. "Contact lenses, man" he said smiling and pulling down on one of his lower eyelids to show Dave his contacts.
Although not close friends, Ron had known Dave and Max for many years. He also knew Jenny, as he was dating one of her friends, Candy.
"Do you work here or coming to see the race, Ron?"
"Coming to see the race, but can't stay to the end..." he then lowered his voice. "Have to leave earlier to attend a wedding. Jenny's getting married."
If Dave had been slapped twice across the face and then 20 gallons of freezing water had been dumped on his head, he probably would have looked just as surprised. But Dave's face was nothing compared to Max's... Dave and Ron couldn't have known that Max was right behind the very same washroom door Ron had come through a couple of minutes before... and heard every one of those last words...

....................

Jenny didn't expect she'd be allowed into the pits just like that; but she had a secret entrance... she hoped.
"Please, still be as it was..." she kept murmuring to herself during the taxi ride to the race tracks.
There was a small opening on the wire fence around the race track, well hidden by an overgrown hedge.
Her Dad used to bring her to see the races when she was in High School. He'd buy their tickets but instead of going to the seating area. he'd take her around and they'd sneak in through the hidden hole... which was close to the pits.
Jenny got in through the main gates and then took the little "detour" she so well knew. The race had already started so there was no one around to notice a bride closely inspecting the hedge. Jenny found the hole and started to push her way in... and discovered that it was no easy task in a wedding dress. She did manage to get through but left behind most of the lower part of her dress.
She looked down at her now mostly bare legs and thought "oh well, easier to move around here in a mini-skirt..."
She made it to the pits just as Max was approaching the area on the lane closest to the pit lane. Jenny turned her face towards the car and it was as if, across the distance, somehow their eyes met.
In the few seconds it took him to drive by, Max's brain; so accustomed to reacting at high speed; managed to register that the woman at the pits in the torn wedding dress was Jenny. His Jenny... in a wedding dress! And apparently, not marrying; he didn't remember if Ron had said who; after all.
Suddenly time seemed to slow down to almost a stop. Dave saw Jenny and started to run towards her, waving frantically, an angry expression on his face that turned to horror as he noticed Jenny's wedding dress and Max's car driving by.
Dave was not a religious man, but at that moment he did pray silently to whatever higher power might be out there watching over them, begging that Max hadn't seen her.
But Max did see Jenny, refused to believe his eyes, and closed them for an instant. A fatal mistake at the usual formula 1 racing speeds...
Jenny's face followed Max's car, a proud smile on her face on seeing "her Val" looking grater than life in his shining race car. A smile not meant to last as, on closing his eyes, Max lost control of his car...
Both Dave and Jenny screamed "Noooo" at the same time... but while Dave stood petrified, face ashen and unable to move; Jenny reacted not even knowing what she was doing.
Seconds before Max crashed his race car against the wall on the other side of the road and some three hundred meters from the pits; Jenny had already cleared the railing in a single jump, landed on the track and started to run.
Tears rolling down her cheeks she run, as if running was all there was to her life; faster than she had ever run. She run oblivious to the fact that she was on a race track and a car could end her run; and her life; any moment. Several men from the pits went after her to try to stop her, but Jenny wasn't just a fast runner. She had been the Regional Champion at the 400 m dash three years in a row during her University years, and still was the fastest runner in town.
Miraculously, Max had not lost consciousness. He managed to find just enough strength to pull his helmet off. His left eye vision was obscured by blood flowing down from a cut along his left eyebrow. His left leg was trapped by some collapsed part of his race car frame, but that was no problem... the emergency crew would pull the frame apart and free him. What was worrisome though was the pain on his right side just below his rib cage...
"Why is a metal rod sticking out of my body?" he wondered; his foggy mind too dazed to comprehend that he had been impaled by that metal rod and the uncharacteristic red colour on his jumpsuit was not fabric dye but his own blood. Suddenly, he was aware of a voice talking to him; a voice he knew all too well...
"I must be hallucinating..." he thought. "No, wait..." he remembered then that instant before losing control of his car. Jenny, standing there in a partially torn white dress... she looked like an angel that had come down to Earth to watch him race. So beautiful! His lovely beloved Jenny...
"Jenny?" he looked into her eyes dreamily... but then snapped back to reality. "No, no, get away from here..." he tried to shout but but only managed a weak whisper.
"I'm here, baby. Don't move. I'll pull you out" tears run down her soft cheeks as she leaned into the car cockpit wondering how on Earth she was going to get him out. Then she saw the rod and the growing blood stain on his jumpsuit. Jenny gasped and had to close her eyes. She slowly opened her eyes again hoping she had imagined it... she had not.
Jenny turned around and saw a group of people running towards them.
"Don't worry, baby. The emergency crew is coming. It'll all be ok" she said giving him a quick kiss on the lips.
"Listen Jenny, you have to get away from the car!" Max said, this time finding the strength to make his voice firm.
She ignored him and instead sniffed... "Val, what's that smell?"
He had been aware of that smell since before Jenny had arrived by his side. The smell of burning insulation... and gasoline. And there was the faintest crackling sound... something had caught fire. He only had seconds left. The rescue crew was not going to make it in time. He was about to answer Jenny when he saw realization blossom on her face. He tried to push her away from him but was too weak. She hung on to his neck, leaned into the car's cockpit and kissed him.
They looked into each other's eyes. Jenny shook her head.
"No... no. I'm going nowhere!" grim determination in her voice.
"Jenny, you'll die with me!"
"So I will!"
There was so much to say; so many mistakes to correct; so many lost moments to make up for... and not enough time. No time at all. So, Jenny gave Max the only thing she was left with.
"Val, I love you! Always have and always will. I love you more than life and my soul will keep on loving you after we die."
Max managed a weak smile. "I love you too, my Jenny; my angel, my everything!"
They kissed... a long, passionate kiss. Jenny let herself drop inside the car's cockpit while still kissing him. And they didn't let go after each other...

....................

Far from the race tracks complex, a group of friends and family members waited restlessly at a church. Nick refused to make eye contact with anyone, should that simplest of actions prompted questions or speculations he definitely did not want to hear.
Jenny's parents were finally beginning to lose all hope... when the limo had arrived to pick them up without their daughter they had thought "it's just cold feet..."
"She just needs a bit of time to gather herself." Jenny's Mom had told her husband. "When she panics she needs to be alone. Don't worry, she'll just take a taxi... arrive a bit late, but it'll all be okay." she had said, and then added "you know our Jenny..."
Everything was in place; everything ready; everything perfect... but the bride never arrived.

....................

For Dave and the emergency crew, the distance from the pits to the crash site seemed to keep getting longer and longer with every step they took. And Max had been right, they never made it...
Jenny and Max broke their kiss for a second and looked into each other's eyes. Then they heard the "woosh" of the suddenly expanding fire... the puddle of gasoline that had been growing under the car had finally been ignited. There was no time for words... no need for words. At that moment, looking into each other's eyes; each other's souls; it was as if they could read each other's minds.
"This is it. This is how it all ends... and we leave this world together."
And as the flames climbed the sides of the car moving towards them, with acceptance showing on their faces, they said the only words that needed be said aloud, their final words...
Together, at the exact same time, lips almost touching "Yes, I do!" and they kissed fiercely.
The explosion was so violent, the rescue team running towards the crash site was pushed back. Feeling the heat on their faces, they all stopped on their tracks and looked in shock as the fire consumed the two young lives they had not been able to save...
As Dave fell to his knees and cried for his lost friends, two souls bonded by love left this world to spend eternity together.