I hope you all continue to enjoy it.
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Chapter Three – Brothers
Speed left the commissary, a cup of coffee in his hand. For a second he wished he could have something stronger, but he knew better than to even think of that. His drinking days were behind him, just like his racing days. "Pops isn't going to be very happy when I tell him the news about MicroTekInc, he really wanted that account. I won't call him now, I'll wait till tomorrow." He felt a headache coming on; a common occurrence since he'd started this job.
He stopped short when he saw the Mach Five still sitting on the tarmac. Velosity was nowhere to be seen. "Where the heck is that kid?" Speed's headache now was taking on mammoth proportions. He scanned the track looking for his daughter. He finally saw her by the Shooting Star, speaking animatedly to Racer X. A girl with shoulder length blonde hair was standing with them,Velosity's friend, Judy.
He stormed over to them, fuming. "Velosity, what are you doing here? Why didn't you bring the car to the pits like I asked you to?"
"I'm sorry, Dad. I saw Judy and wanted to tell her about my qualifying. I was only gonna leave the car for a second, I swear. But then Racer X called me over, I had to talk to him... Sorry."
"Sorry? Sorry doesn't cut it! How many times have I told you that you never leave the Mach Five alone like that? Do you think that your grandfather and Uncle Sparky rebuilt her just so you could let her sit and rot on the tarmac?"
Velosity looked down at the ground. "Dad, I really am sorry. It'll never happen again, I promise!"
"Yeah, you promise, until the next time something distracts you. Do you know how disappointed I am in you?" Suddenly Speed exploded, "LOS, THAT CAR IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!!! YOU JUST LEFT IT THERE, WITH THE KEYS IN IT, YET! WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?"
"D-Dad, I said I was s-s-sorry...what more do you want me to say?" she sputtered.
"NOTHING! I guess it's up to me to drive the Mach Five into the pits. I sure was wrong when I said you were responsible enough to take care of it."
"Dad, I am responsible enough. Please let me take care of the Mach Five... Please!" she begged him.
Speed shook his head. "No! All I want you to do is go to the parking lot and wait for me there. This conversation is far from over. Now go."
"Yes sir." She was still standing with her head down. "Talk to you later, Judy." She glanced up at Racer X. "Thank you for the advice, I'll try it." She wiped the tears from her eyes as she left.
Judy stared up a Speed, a mixture of fear and longing on her face. "I'm sorry about starting all this trouble, Mr. Racer. Don't be mad at Velosity, it's not her fault."
"It's too late for that. Judy, I think you'd better go. I have something I want to discuss with the Masked Racer."
Judy slowly walked away. She stopped and gazed back at Speed. "What an incredible man..."
Speed turned to Racer X, his eyes squinted in anger. "What did you want from my daughter?"
"I didn't want anything; I was just congratulating her on placing second."
"Uh huh, right. You let her place second. I could tell you weren't driving your fastest. You held back."
Racer X shrugged. "If I held back, it must have been subconsciously."
He was lying, Speed knew. "Don't give me that crap. You did the same thing for me when I first started racing. I didn't like it then and I certainly don't like it now. My daughter doesn't need your help. If she wins I want it to be because of her skill, not because you let her."
"All right Speed, if you want I can go to the officials and tell them I cheated to let Velosity get in a better position than me. Of course you know what that would mean, I'd be disaualified. Velosity would find out..."
Speed shook his head. "No. That would break my daughter's heart. Let it stand. Just make sure that when you race, you don't give her any advantage. Because if you do, I swear I'll make you wish you were the one who crashed that day." Speed's hands were balled into fists; he was trying very hard to control his anger.
"There you go again, bringing up the crash. When are you going to let go of it? When are you going to stop torturing yourself over it?"
"Torturing myself? I don't even remember the crash. I've seen the video hundreds of times, but I still have no recollection of it. Funny how the mind works, huh?"
Racer X looked at him curiously. "If you don't remember the crash, then why the anger? Why do you dislike me so much?"
"If I were you I'd use a stronger word than dislike. Try loathe, detest...or my favorite hate! Do you know why I hate you so much, big brother?" There was acid in his voice on those last two words. "Everybody thinks it's because of the accident, but that's not really it. I mean, I am angry at you because I hit that wall trying to save your butt. I know it's my own fault for putting myself between you and that other car. But the thing that got to me is you kept going. I saw it on the video. I saved your life...smashed into the wall and you didn't stop, you didn't even slow down! Then, you told me who you were. You were my brother and you didn't even try to help me. You kept driving, ended up winning the lousy race. You didn't even care!" Speed tried desperately to blink back the tears that threatened to burst forth.
"Speed, I am so sorry... I wanted to stop and help, but what could I do? The EMTs were already working on you. The officials stopped the race. There was no way they would even let me near you."
"You could've tried!" Speed said, lips quivering.
"Speed, you…" Rex turned away, his brother would never understand. He took a deep breath before continuing. "When they finally started the race, you were on your way to the hospital. There was nothing I could do. I had to finish the race. I know you would have if it was the other way around."
Speed shook his head. "Rex, you really don't know me at all, do you? If that were you who crashed I would've gone over to help. I wouldn't have cared about the race. Your life, any of the other driver's lives, would have been more important to me than winning the race."
Rex knew that his brother was right. Speed didn't even think of his own safety that day. He risked his life to save him.
Speed glared at him, the tears now falling. "I lay in that bed for weeks, wondering what I'd done wrong. Everybody told me I was a hero. But I sure didn't feel like one. If I was a hero, then why was I crippled? Why did I have to learn to walk all over again? The simplest little thing, like taking a step, took me weeks to do.
"One day my doctor told me that because of the severe injuries to my back, I would never be able to race again...something about strain the G-forces would have on me, the pressure. I was told that if I did race, I'd probably be in a wheelchair by the time I was fifty. I told the doctor that didn't it didn't matter, that I would take my chances and race anyway. Then I remembered Trixie and the kids. I had a responsibility to my family. So, I retired. Pops offered me a position at the company. The last thing I wanted...but I had to make a living somehow. I should have been happy that I had a job, instead I went into a deep depression."
"My doctor prescribed Vicadin for the nagging ache in my back; I started taking double the dosage, not really for the pain, but to forget the nightmare that my life had become.
"Then when I came home from rehab, I couldn't be a husband to my wife, if you know what I mean. Do you know how I felt? I wasn't even a real man!!!" Speed could feel his anger bubbling to the surface again. "And my kids, when I think about what I put them through... What kind of father was I?" He closed his eyes and sighed. "When the doctor refused to give me any more Vicadin, I started drinking. I was drunk practically twenty- four hours a day. It's a wonder that anybody even wants to have anything to do with me, I was such a miserable person." He closed his eyes as he remembered that dark period of his life. "I still don't know how the hell I managed to crawl my way back sanity."
Racer X gazed sympathetically at him. "I'm sorry about all you've gone through the past few years, I really am. But it does seem like things are going better for you now. You have a wonderfully devoted wife, three beautiful children, a job that pays well ..."
"Yeah, my life is just peachy keen," Speed said cynically. "I really love getting up in the morning, putting on that ridiculous suit and pretending to fit in with the business world. Having to kiss up to the clients, walking around with that phony smile on my face. Do you know how much I despise the man I've become?"
"Speed, you're a good father and a good man. I always knew you would be." His brother smiled.
"Right. How would you know? You sure weren't around to see me grow up. Another thing that has endeared you to me so much. When things got too rough for you, you took off like the lousy coward you are. You hurt Mom and Pops so much. Not to mention what your leaving did to me! So, don't give me any of your phony platitudes. You don't know anything about me and I prefer to keep it that way."
The Masked Racer knew he was getting nowhere with him. "All right Speed, I give up. You've won. From now on I'll keep my distance. I'll no longer be Rex Racer, your brother. Instead, I'll be Racer X, stranger. Does that make you happy?"
Speed smirked. "Very. And you don't have to worry about my telling the family who you are. The last thing I'd want to do is hurt them. I think you did enough of that. The only person who knows your identity is Trixie and she won't tell. She knows how much I love my family and how much I abhor you."
Racer X shook his head sadly as he watched Speed angrily walk away. His brother's hostility ran deep. "He's really hurting. If he doesn't get some help soon that anger he has inside will destroy him"
As he headed away from Racer X, Speed saw the Mach Five moving slowly towards the Go Team's pit area. "What the...?"
He ran over to the car, Velosity was just getting out of it. "What do you think you're doing? Didn't I tell you to wait for me in the parking lot?"
"Dad, when you didn't come out right away I went to look for you. I saw the Mach Five still on the tarmac and remembered what you said about the car being my responsibility. So I drove it into the pit. I know I disobeyed you. Sorry."
Speed didn't say anything; he took the keys from the ignition and put them in his pocket.
Velosity stared at her father; she could see the look of rage that played across his face. She followed him silently as he walked out to the parking lot.
He finally spoke. "Get in the car. Los, you crossed the line. I told you to wait out here for me. But do you listen? No!"
Velosity tried to reason with him. "Dad, I was worried about you, that's why I went back into the track. I shouldn't have touched the Mach Five..."
"SHUT UP!"
Velosity stomped into the house, pushing past her mother. One look at her daughter's face and Trixie knew something was wrong. "Velosity, what's the matter?"
"Ask him!" She ran into her room, slamming the door behind her.
"VELOSITY GET BACK OUT HERE! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!!!" Speed screamed.
"Speed what the heck is going on?" Trixie jumped in front of him. He pushed her out of the way.
"None of you business!" His eyes were wild with anger.
Trixie once again blocked his path. "Speed, calm down, please..." She put her hands on his shoulders. "She's your daughter."
"Yeah my daughter..." Speed took a deep breath. "I can't help losing my temper with her. I tell you she's gonna drive me crazy one of these days, Trixie." He crashed onto the couch, his head pounding.
"Speed, she's young, still a kid." Trixie sat next to him.
"Yeah, a kid with no brains. You know, she does some stupid stuff sometimes."
"And you didn't when you were her age?" Trixie reminded him.
Speed looked down. "Well, maybe I did. But still, she's gotta learn to think before she acts. Trixie, her irresponsibility could get her hurt during a race."
"Our daughter is a smart girl. She'll do fine, you'll see." Velosity wasn't irresponsible so much as impulsive. It was something she'd inherited from her father.
"I hope you're right," Speed said with a sigh as the phone rang.
Trixie answered it; she put her hand over the receiver. "It's Pops."
"Oh wonderful..." His headache was now hitting the migraine stage. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to his father.
Trixie saw the expression on his face. "Uh Pops... Speed's not here. I thought I heard his car pull up, but I guess I was wrong. I'll have him call you later, okay?" There was muffled voice on the other end, then Trixie hung up the phone.
Speed threw his head back. "Thanks... I can't deal with him right now. You know what's gonna happen when he hears that we...I... didn't land the MicroTekInc account? God, he's gonna go ballistic."
Trixie suddenly understood the real reason for Speed's blowup. Speed had been trying to sign MicroTekInc for weeks. Pops was counting on his doing so. He felt that they would have been perfect sponsors for the team. They were one of the biggest producers of software in the world. In exchange for their sponsorship, Speed had promised that they would endorse them on all their cars, with the exception of one: The Mach Five. And of course the company would only use MicroTekInc products. Unfortunately, they didn't go for it. No Mach Five, no deal. Speed knew that when Pops found out he would never hear the end of it.
"Between MicroTekInc and that rotten Rex..." Speed closed his eyes.
"Your brother is in the race?" Trixie's asked, Speed nodded. Her expression softened. "Sounds like you had one hell of a day."
"Yeah, and right now I wish I could crawl under a rock."
