I don't really need to look very much further
I don't wanna have to go where you don't follow
I won't hold it back again, this passion inside
I can't run from myself, there's nowhere to hide
Your love, I'll remember forever
But don't make me close one more door
I don't wanna hurt anymore
Stay in my arms if you dare
Or must I imagine you there
Don't walk away from me
I have nothing, nothing, nothing
Don't make me close one more door
I don't wanna hurt anymore
Stay in my arms if you dare
Or must I imagine you there
Don't walk away from me, no
Don't walk away from me
Don't you dare walk away from me
I have nothing, nothing, nothing
If I don't have you, you
If I don't have you, oh you
The bedroom looks like a typical teenage girl's bedroom, with white carpet, white walls, and a white shelf with stuffed toys. Nadine Ketchum lies on the bed, pondering her life.
It is clear that her parents see Randy Butler as basically a living ATM. For four years, they kept telling her what a good boy Randy was.
And up until the time of her high school graduation in 1995, she believed them.
Her parents kept telling her she was only going through a rough time with Randy, that they had their own rough times, and soon enough everything will be all right between her and that boy.
She feels as if her own parents are acting to similar to some street pimp in Indianapolis or Chicago.
She continues fantasizing about leaving Elk Ridge, with Danny, getting married, and living his dream as a NASCAR racer.
Oooooooooooo
Ben Song manages to clear the rusty chain link fence, landing on the ground.
"I can't believe we're stealing a driveshaft," the leaper says to Lenny and Bump.
"When did ya get religion, Fireball?" asks Lenny.
"why not wait until the morning to pay for it?"
"Because we're out of money," answers Bump.
"What if we left an I.O.U.?"
"Good idea," says Lenny. "But don't sign it."
Ben can see the shadows of various junked cars in this junk yard just a mile from downtown. Only crickets can be heard this late at night.
"There should be a dead Camaro in here, somewhere," says Bump.
The leaper hears footsteps.
"Uh, guys?" he asks. "Is that you?" He looks and sees the silhouette of a dog. His adrenalin level rises and his heart races, as things are looking very bad. "Listen, we back out slowly, towards the fence. We took nothing. We'll just find another way to get a driveshaft."
"Don't worry, it's just Gordon," says Lenny. He calls towards the Doberman. "Hey Gordon, it's Lenny."
The dog approaches the teen and Lenny pets the head of animal named Gordon, who is covered in fine black fur.
"How did you do that?" asks Ben.
"I knew Gordon since he was a puppy, Fireball," says Lenny. He then puts on some thick gloves and Bump shines a flashlight. "I often come down to the junkyard to pay him a visit. Let's go get that driveshaft." The teen then gives a doggy treat to the Doberman.
Ooooooooo
The sound of metal on metal has filled the garage of the Union 76 station for the past few hours. One customer had actually arrived in the dead of the night; Lenny had come to assist.
The young man looks at his wrist watch. "Come on, Bump you coulda built a whole new car by now," he says.
"Do you want it done fast, or do you want it done right?" asks Bump.
"I vote for right," replies Ben.
"See, I got Danny's vote of confidence."
Ben takes a look back. Lenny and Bump are covered in grease, and the leaper can feel the grease on his clothes and skin.
"Would you mind passing the ballpeen hammer?" Bump asks the man who appears to be Danny Roberts.
Ben wordlessly hands the teen a ballpeen hammer from a plastic toolbox sitting on the garage's concrete floor. Bump starts smacking the driveshaft on the Camaro.
Lenny interrupts him. "Don't hit it too hard or it'll break," he says.
"How 'bout I hit you instead?" asks Bump before resuming his work.
Ben looks as the teen works with the pilfered driveshaft. Some memories surface, memories of him working on a huge device in a lab, the device that eventually led him into leaping into other people's lives in different periods of time. He even once leaped all the way back to the 1870's a few months ago in his time.
Bump bangs on the driveshaft.
"Damn! I broke it!" he yells.
Panic arises in both Ben's and Lenny's feeling.
"What?" asks Ben. "How'm I supposed to leap.. to race?"
"Sike!" exclaims Bump. "It's in."
Lenny takes a second look at the engine compartment of the Camaro. "All right!"
Ben walks to a mirror on the side of the garage. Danny's reflection is clearly covered in grease, looking radically different than when the leaper first entered the teen's life.
"We got to go home and take showers," says Ben.
Lenny brings something from the back of the Ford F-150. The leaper can see it is some sort of knapsack.
"The waterin' hole," says Lenny. "Let's lock up and get into the truck."
ooooooooooooo
Twenty minutes later, Ben is inside a small lake, maybe about seven feet deep at its deepest and roughly an acre in surface area, with Bump and Lenny. They all stripped down to swimming trunks.
A creek is the lakes outlet, which about ten miles away, joins another creek, which then joins a river, which then empties into the Ohio. The lake itself is surrounded by oak trees and eucalyptus trees and maple trees and elm trees. It is a sample of what the place looked like, before the first people to settle here plowed the land to plant maize.
The three young men have the lake all to themselves, as the sky is just turning from black to purple, an orange glow is visible on the eastern horizon.
"I am going to miss this lake," says Bump.
"Yeah," says Lenny. "I remember the summer after 10th grade, a whole bunch of us went here. My brother brought kegs of booze. And then Marcy Hill happened."
"Marcy Hill?" asks the leaper.
"I guess you're a bit tired from being up all night. That day, Marcy jumped into the deep end of the lake, and her bikini top came off. We all saw her tits."
"Yeah," says Bump, laughing at the three-year-old memory. "Randy and Nadine were there too."
"yeah, I guess I do need to relax," says Ben. "I do need my memory back."
"We're going to make it to the time trials, and we're going to NASCAR."
"But what if we don't make it."
"We have to make it," says Bump. "It's our only chance out of here."
Ben is wondering why he had not leaped. The Chevrolet Camaro is fixed, and Fireball will have his chance. The leaper feels that surely it is not hios job to guarantee that Danny Roberts will become a NASCAR champion.
"My biggest fear is ending up like my old man," says Lenny. "working at that lousy plant, from sunup to sundown. Comin' home so tired he couldn't even eat. Just sittin' there drinkin' moonshine all night. My brother, my mama, and me..we'd carry him to bed. And then one mornin;' we couldn't get up, we couldn't help him anymore." A wave of sadness arises in him, triggered by the memory.
"when we make it big; I'll buy a really big house for my folks," says Bump. "Maybe by the east shore of Lake Michigan, or maybe on the Atlantic coast. My dad told me how he worked on a dairy home. He and two of my uncles even held up a bank to expose a scammer."
"What?" asks Ben.
"It happened years before we were born."
"If you buy a big house, could you have room for my mama and me?"
"so what's your dream, Danny?" asks Bump.
"Right now, I need to make sure I have a chance at the time trials," replies Ben.
Just a few meters away, right by the Ford F-150 pickup truck, a human hand presses on a Bic lighter. The toothed wheel scratches flint, creating sparks which ignite butane.
The flame is set on a pile of clothes, already soaked with Kingsford charcoal lighter fluid, and soon the clothes burn.
The three men in the lake notice the flame right by the truck and they also hear the roar of an automobile engine.
