Instead of accelerating out of his drift and across the start-finish line, Lightning glided across the dirt and pulled off toward the road that led back to town. An impatient pair of eyes waited for him at the edge of the track.
"Look at you, all out here on your own," he commented as he drove up to her. "Get tired of sorting papers for your mom?"
The young sports car rolled her eyes emphatically. "The radio keeps playing the same, like, eight country songs over and over again. I'm about to lose my mind. I'm bored."
"Bored, huh? You're three days into summer vacation and you're bored already?" Lightning asked with a hint of humor. "Y'know, when you were little, you would keep yourself occupied for hours just playing in the dirt around the koi pond."
"Dad, please," she said, not having it. "I'm past that. You know that."
"Aww, come on!" Lightning said with overbearing enthusiasm. "You're never too old to play in a little dirt. Just ask Mater."
"Mom said not to," she pouted a little. "Mom thinks that every time uncle Mater and I go do something, I hurt myself. I was gonna go bother him instead of you, and she said no. She said I can't do anything to scratch my new paint for at least three days."
Lightning chuckled a little. Ramone used her as a living canvas, testing new ideas at least once every other week. This week she was sporting opalescent white with matte black accents down her sides. He could see why Sally didn't want her to ruin it right away.
"Well, I have a whole list of things that need done around town," he offered. "How do you feel about waxing the courtroom floor?"
She grimaced and shook herself. "No, thanks."
"Washing the Cozy Cone windows?"
"Nah."
"Pulling weeds out from around the pond?"
"Ugh, no."
"Making sure Lizzie doesn't harass any travelers?"
"Dad!"
He laughed. "You know it's a problem."
She cringed a little and tried to cleanse her mind of any unwelcome images. Lightning took a moment and remembered what he had been like at that age. He couldn't have sat still if he wanted to, and here his own daughter had inherited it. His impatience coupled with Sally's constant need to be productive always surfaced new sorts of problems for her.
"Tell you what," he said on a more serious note. "You're old enough now, if you're looking for something to do to keep yourself occupied in the summertime, why don't you go talk to Flo? I'm sure she could find something for you to do around the cafe. It'd keep you busy, earn you a bit of money, and we all know that woman could use the help."
She thought about it. Heavens knew Flo could use some assistance. Waitressing did sound considerably better than doing hard physical labor and odd jobs around town…
"Alright, I can do that," she agreed. "Just part time for now. I still wanna have fun."
"Yeah, sure, you gotta have fun while you can, right?"
She smiled at him. "Thanks for the idea."
"Hey, that's what I'm here for, right?"
"Advice and dad jokes. Yep. That's all you're good for."
Lightning's smile flattened into a look of annoyance. "Did your mom tell you to say that?"
She giggled. "Maybe."
She laughed a little harder at his displeased expression. No one could joke about her parents better than they could about each other.
"Alright, well, I'm gonna go talk to Flo, then," she said as she turned back toward town. "I'll see you later!"
He opened his mouth to bid her farewell when a thought occurred to him. He'd been considering it a lot recently. Perhaps it was time.
"Hey, before you go," he called to her, "you interested in a little racing lesson?"
She stopped and looked back at him with an inquisitive gleam in her eyes.
"You know, since we were talking about playing in dirt and whatnot, how'd you like to learn how to run a dirt track? I got a couple things I think Doc would've liked to showed you."
Her face lit up and she turned toward the butte again. "I was starting to wonder if you'd ever let me do this."
"Now we're gonna start slow…"
"We're McQueens. We don't do slow."
"That's my girl."