Never the Same IC#36 Goin’ it Alone

Summer: A woman, bike rides, bee stings, and boy scout badges.

 

Cue: “In the Summertime” https://youtu.be/iokgq4I0OM8

Kirk brushed aside his failure to qualify on Sunday afternoon after his surprising qualification Saturday night’s Mid-Season Championship. Mike’s explanation to why Kirk’s car had a little less edge at Perry after his Holland qualification became obvious to Kirk after the fact. Kirk should’ve reasoned it out on his own because he knew those things that that would affect power and speed and what he could do to fix it if so inclined or willing to throw money at the car. He was disinclined to neither of those especially seeing had little money to spare with three vehicles on the road, a stock car and Sarah Elizabeth. More about Kirk and Sarah E. later.

Anyhow, Kirk should’ve seen what came soon afterwards ignoring the signs Mike had shown after Mike’s shout-out arguments with the track officials. Like usual Kirk went directly into in denial until the inevitable hammer fell.

Mid-week, Mike informed Kirk that he had to go out of state to retrieve some cars for renovation and so wouldn’t be racing the upcoming weekend. Kirk took the declaration as a shock seeing Mike had provided transportation for his stock car to and from the tracks. In Kirk’s short racing career, he thought this a devastating turn of events and an end to Kirk’s said career.

 He didn’t know what he would do. On one hand, every week he was more or less an “also ran” at the tracks and maybe take it as a sign to give up racing anyway, yet on the other hand it seemed Kirk felt addicted to the sounds, smells, and thrills. Could he give up racing? Should he just face it and give up racing and get on with his life? What life? Kirk off-handedly believed in signs driving his fate and so was this indicating he should quit his folly? Or does mean it something else like going it alone? Kirk stalled with inaction during his befuddlement.

His pink van still wasn’t registered for the road, but the body looked pretty good with new paint and all the masking tape removed.  It had old bald tires and those nasty stock wheels on it, but Kirk had those four nice shiny warranty Rallye wheels from his work.

So, taking a cue from things he had to do despite not making a decision about racing, he loaded the wheels up in his Firebird and dropped them off at the tire store. He told him he wanted regular width “Wide-oval” tires for the front but he needed neat looking “meaty” wide tires for the back. They would mount them up, balance them and Kirk could pick them up later. While killing time he checked out the lights which just needed a couple bulbs and checked the fluids and the underneath. After all the time and effort Kirk put into repairing the body damage and giving it a nice paint job, you’d think he would’ve checked the van out before the work but he hadn’t.  Perusing all the functional parts, he found the van overall was in pretty good shape. It ran well, had no major leaks, and no real problems. Lucky Kirk! With paint job off his mind, he moved on to the plan of finishing off the interior. The way those old vans’ steel body structural elements inside made them easy to finish off. Kirk planned on paneling the walls and building a raised platform in the back over the wheel wells. Being not so happy at home he thought that he could just park and sleep where ever and whenever he wanted, perhaps with Sarah Elizabeth.

On his way to retrieve his wheels and tires he had an inspiration. Maybe his racing career wasn’t stuck. Picking up his wheels and new tires which the two smaller fronts fit in the trunk, but he put the other two fat rear tires in the back seat. Why not? He had the convertible top down already, which you remember Kirk had to wrestle up and down manually because he removed all the heavy electric drive pieces for the top mechanism from the car and tossed them. No reason to carry all that extra weight around in a hot car, right? Of course as soon as he got home, Kirk had to mount those neat tires and wheels on the van. He just had to stand back and take it all in. Yeah, it was a VERY cool van! At least in his own eyes because others thought it was gaudy.

Anyway, taking action on his inspiration, he asked Mike if he needed to use the trailer for his car hauling. He didn’t so Kirk asked if he could use it to haul his stock car to the track. Yes, he could. Just as soon as everyone thought he was out, he was back in the racing business, but now he had different things to do on the van. Picking up a six-inch channel iron, he welded hefty mounts on it to bolt onto the van’s frame. The channel iron was thick and heavy enough to pull a bull dozer out of the ditch if the van hadn’t been so under powered. Welding a short channel chunk protruding from the center, he maintained judiciousness to make sure it was perfectly centered on the channel acting as the back bumper for a trailer hitch. Yeah, heavy duty, really so! Racing to the DMV on the Friday afternoon he registered the van, got plates and a temporary inspection. Whew! That was close. He wasn’t sure how the van with the six-cylinder engine would do pulling the trailer, but he reassured himself that he would make it to the race tracks. Maybe slow, maybe geared down, but he’d get there.

After he did some ad hoc wiring for the trailer, Kirk hooked up the trailer and loaded his car along with his box of tools. Far out! He suddenly was on his own heading to the race track. Yeah, the van was underpowered for such a task, but it would cruise the speed limit on the flats and down hills. Up hill proved a whole different matter, but he got there though it was a bit lonely. So seeing he wasn’t riding along with the testosterone crew to the track, the following weekend he invited Sarah Elizabeth to ride along. The old van had the engine between the seats covered by a big insulated metal shell, so Sarah brought a carpet remnant to sit on top of the engine. Yep, kisses along the way to the track. Sure, she couldn’t be in the pits, but he could sit in the stands with her between his races and share vinegar fries and a Coke without ice. She couldn’t understand that so she had her Coke with ice.   

Undoubtedly, taking the long trips together to the race tracks brought Kirk and Sarah Elizabeth closer. The time they spent watching the races proved to be a bonding time. Sarah always said she was a cheap date; Kirk took full advantage of that acknowledgement.  They were both happy enough with fast food and on weekday evenings they’d be happy just to sit or lay together and watch television. Sarah differed from Farah who Kirk considered a classy girl even though she came from a humble family with humble means. Kirk felt Farah just exuded the appearance that she needed to be doted upon and coddled over. When Kirk had been going steady with her that’s exactly what he did. So Kirk adapted his dates to the girl he was with just like the song said “love the one you’re with” and treat them accordingly.

Sarah also differed from Farah in the fact that she loved to sit behind Kirk on his motorcycle and ride anywhere he wanted to go. Recall that Farah’s mother didn’t allow her to ride with Kirk. Maybe the mother knew Kirk tended to be a bit wild and loose and thought that motorcycles were just plain dangerous anyway.

One day, Kirk and Sarah decided to go on a motorcycle ride. Packing a blanket and a light lunch of sandwiches the prepared to set off. It proved to be a hot midsummer day, so uncharacteristically Kirk took his shirt off. He invited Sarah to do the same but she disinclined the offer. Kirk wasn’t macho in anyway, in fact his physique being kind of long and scrawny. Perhaps, he thought that showing off his upper body was “cool” or maybe he temporarily lost his marbles.

They took off, Kirk running up the gears on his motorcycle quickly just because he liked the engine’s sound of power and the thrill of acceleration. Up to cruising speed, the air blasting on his body felt good in a buffeting, blowtorch sort of way. By the way, even though helmets weren’t required yet, Kirk always wore his and required his passenger to do the same. Probably because he thought it was “cool.” The pair had decided beforehand that they’d go to a state forest a moderate distance away, one that hardly anyone ever visited one that was really wild and untended.

Still maintaining a brisk clip, they drew nearer, but suddenly, Kirk let out a howl, slammed on the brakes and headed for the shoulder. Sarah hung on tighter unsure what had just happened. Stopping as fast as he could, he flipped down the kickstand, and jumped off the bike heading further off the road on foot. Sarah remained on the bike frozen with concern over Kirk’s abrupt erratic behavior.

“What happened!” Sarah shouted. “What’s wrong!?”

Kirk looked down at his belly and pulled something off. “A BEE! A bee stung me!”

Sarah sort of grinned  and let out a chuckle with the minor infraction that had caused Kirk to lose his mind.

“Here let me take a look,” she said getting off the bike and putting a soft hand on Kirk’s shoulder. “Where’d he sting you?”

“Right here,” Kirk said gesturing kind of erratically in the general area of his belly.

“Let me see,” she looked closer. “I don’t see anything�"wait! Your belly button�"naval is red. Oh, the stinger is still there. Hold on.” Carefully using a fingernail, she flicked the stinger out. “There. Bet that really stings there.”

“Ha, yeah a stinger stings!” Kirk said rubbing around the sting. “Got a tissue and some water?”

“Sure, I’ll fix you up, hang on.”

After a while Kirk seemed to recover. “I think I’ll wear my shirt.” Kirk was never the same after that and never rode without a shirt again!

Anyhow, they ventured on because it was a rather long ride to the forest. When they arrived, they rode right in one of the entrances because no one actually worked there and moseyed along a little traveled two-track trail until they got deep into the forest. The spotted a grassy clearing and parking the bike they trudged out and pulled out the blanket. A sunny day with a cool breeze proved to be a nice time to enjoy nature without a care. Kirk didn’t have to worry about work or racing or anything. Sarah seemed glad to be away from home and her parents. After a snack and a drink, they laid down to soak up the sun. One thing led to another and soon they were soaking up the sun with their complete bodies. You might say they went au naturel. It proved a wonderful time in nature without a worry at all. Kirk forgot all about his bee sting. One thing led to another. 

All of a sudden, they heard a voice. Several voices in whispers. At first, they thought that they were hearing things. Sitting up and viewing over the top of the swaying grass, Kirk saw what appeared like a whole boy scout troop standing nearby taking in the couple in throes of the “deed” compromising position. Sarah let out a gasp, and swiftly grasping the edge of the blanket, she rolled herself up like a burrito. At that moment, the scout leader joined the troop and gazing at the couple ordered the troop to be on their way. Kirk thought the boys had no inclination to hurry on their way.

As the troop unhurriedly marched away, the scout leader over his shoulder said, “Ah, sorry for the intrusion.”

Well, that certainly broke the mood and the couple finished dressing quickly. They didn’t leave right away but you might say that both Kirk and Sarah felt never the same after the boy scouts earned a badge for human sexuality if there was such a badge. Well, that’s an example of how the Kirk and Sarah’s relationship prevailed on a regular basis.