Phineas Bogg looked over at his partner who was sitting on the
grass, gazing out at the lake. He knew what Jeff was thinking. It
had been a boring couple of days at VHQ and he was going nuts
as well.
"Hey, kid, what you say we go for some R&R?" he asked,
breaking the silence.
The twelve year old boy glanced up at him, hope in his big brown
eyes.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," Phineas nodded.
"Where to?"
"It's a surprise," Phineas smiled at the boy. His boy.
"Bogggg,"
"Grab hold, kid. We're going,"
"Now?" he asked.
"Now,"
A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the Daytona
International Speedway, Florida in the summer of 1968.
"Where are we?" Jeff asked.
"Daytona, Florida. 1968."
" The Pepsi 500??" Jeff's eye's went big. He loved racing, even
more so, he loved Richard Petty! And this big pirate surprised him
on a trip to see a race! Tears of joy filled his eyes.
"Oh, Bogg!" he wrapped his arms around his friend.
"I take it you like the surprise?"
"Like it? I love it!"
"Wanna go in?"
"Are you kidding?! Let's go!"
Jeff practically dragged Bogg to the building. He was searching the
area for any sign of Richard Petty or at least any pictures on the
walls.
To his amazement, he didn't find a singal picture of the race car
driver.
"Bogg, is the omni red?" he asked.
"Ya know, I never checked. Hold on," Phineas opened it up
"Yep. And blinking like crazy,"
Phineas watched Jeff go up to the security guard.
"Excuse me, sir. What happened to Richard Petty?"
"Richard who?"
"Richard Petty," Jeffrey repeated.
"I remember a Lee Petty, but he retired a few years back when his
son got killed."
"What?!" Jeff gasped.
"His son, Richard, got killed while cleaning his father's car."
"No way!"
The guard nodded and slowly walked away.
For a minute, Jeff just stood there, trying to take it all in. A few
feet behind him, Phineas was watching Jeff. The boy had his head down, looking a the ground. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
Before he could make the move to go to his boy, Jeff turned and
went to him.
"What's wrong, kid?" Phineas put a firm hand on his shoulder.
Jeff sighed. "Richard Petty got killed years ago,"
"Oh, geeze. How?"
"The guard didn't say."
"That's not good, is it?"
"No, Bogg, it isn't."
"I'm not sure it's important enough,"
"Bogg, how can you say that? Richard Petty is the greatest race
driver in the world."
"It's not part of history, kid. I'm sorry,"
"Oh, Bogg, c'mon! We can't leave not knowing what happened to
Richard Petty! I mean, geeeeeze, who else can I watch in car racing???"
Phineas looked at Jeff in disbelief. He could never understand cars
or ever wanted to be in one again.
The last time he was in a car was when he and Jeff had to rescue
Babe Ruth and Cleopatra. And he
wasn't sure he liked them even then! Too much to remember how
to drive the things and transportation 1A didn't help matters,
either!
"Okay, where to, kid?"
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking..."
"Taking a find time to have a brain failure, aren't you?"
"I'm not really good at this kind of history, Bogg, so sue me!" Jeff
sighed, trying to get his mind together.
The news about Richard Petty had blown him away. If only he
could get his partner to understand...