A/N: Sorry for slow updates, I'm really trying to find free time, I swear! Anyways, remember to like, review, ff and ALSO fhere is a poll in my profile, please go vote! its a tie and im torn! i needs the helps! Anyways, no more a dues! heres the next chappy!
Chapter 17: Some Tales
Two Years Later: 1992
"And it's off to turn four! Lap 58, and The King still has the lead! Bob, I think Dino's Golden Boy is gonna do it again! He's looking to be on fire today!"
It was 10:00 in the morning and the third race of the season was hot on the radio.
"Darrell, this is undoubtedly his race to win! I don't see him losing that lead anytime soon. But as we all know, in the racing world, anything can happen." Bob Cutlass said to Darrell Cartrip. Harley was on the front porch of Lizzy's shop keenly listening into RSN Radio. Meanwhile, Lizzy was sound asleep.
"Go, Uncle Strip!" Harley shouted in excitement. Doc came driving up, looking rather upset.
"Harley? What are you doing?" he asked, his eyelids furrowed.
"Uncle Strip is racing right now!" She shouted looking up at Doc. Her voice was fuller now and not as high pitched. In just two years, Doc noticed her get bigger and her angels became sharper, but still held their childlike curves. "I don't know how many Piston Cup points he has, but he's winning, so he'll get more!" Looking back at Lizzy's radio, she went on with listening to the exciting race. Clearly, Doc was not happy with it.
"I'm glad your uncle is winning." he said but went to turn off the radio. "But we have to go over your homework." Since the all papers were signed and all the conditions were agreed upon, Doc had been homeschooling Harley. He enjoyed teaching her, but he didn't enjoy the amount of time she spent getting distracted.
"No! I'm supposed to have two days off every week!" Harle whined as Doc shut off the race. "Saturday and Sunday!"
"Yes, Harley I know but-"
"Doc, today's my day off!" Harley persisted in setting her case.
"Harley…" Doc said calmly.
"What?"
"Today's Friday." Harley looked at Doc confused then she thought about the day's date and finally nodded.
"Ooohhhh…." She said and slumped on her tires while Doc chuckled.
"It's alright, let's go." Doc said and started to head for the clinic with Harley at his side.
"Alright Harley, what's two times two?" Doc asked as he looked over second grade papers. Harley thought for a second then jumped up.
"Oh, four!" she shouted and Doc nodded.
"Good job! Two times three?" Doc asked and again she thought.
"Uh… five?" Doc shook his hood. "No wait! Six!" Harley corrected herself and Doc chuckled.
"Yes, that's right. Now why is it six?" Doc asked and Harley quickly answered.
"Because it two threes! And so it's like three plus three!" Doc smiled at her.
"Exactly." They went on with their math lesson for a while before taking a break.
"Are we done?" Harley asked in a sort of cry baby tone.
"We're done with math." Doc said and Harley brightened up.
"Yay! I'm gonna see if Uncle Strip-" Harley began to speed off, but Doc moved in front of her, causing her to break hard.
"Oh, no you don't!" Doc said and she again slumped onto her tires.
"Aw…." she cried. "What now?"
"Now you have to read for twenty minutes." Doc said and went over to a stack of books.
"What! Twenty minutes! That so long…" Harley said, but reluctantly drove over to Doc.
"Well I guess we better get started." He coolly said.
"Fine…" By the time Harley had finished up all her schooling for the day, it was one in the afternoon. They had missed lunch and now Harley's tank was growling.
"Let's go over to Flo's and see what we got to eat, okay?" Doc said.
"Are we done?" Harley asked and he nodded.
"Yes, we're done for the week." He said and Harley jumped on her tires.
"Yay!" She exclaimed then headed for the phone. "Can you get me some food while I call Uncle Strip? I wanna find out how he did!" Doc sighed.
"I'm sure he's busy right now." Doc said and began to leave.
"But Doc! I haven't talked to him in a reeeaaally long time!" Harley insisted. Doc stopped and turned back to her.
"Okay, fine." Dic gave in. "But make it quick! Then you can call him later tonight or even tomorrow." Harley had a bright smile.
"Yay! Thank you!" She said and rushed to the phone as Doc left to the café. She racked her brain in search for the right numbers to dial. Then she suddenly remember and quickly dialed and listened to the ring. "Please be the right number, please be the right number
…" She whispered to herself.
"Hello?" Asked a familiar voice.
"Uncle Strip!" Harley exclaimed which was met with a soft laugh.
"Is that the best niece in the world?" The King asked with a chuckle.
"Yep!" Harley smiled big, even if he couldn't see her.
"It's good to hear from you, Harley. Sorry I couldn't call on your birthday last week. I was busy with Dinoco stuff." Strip said and Harley giggled.
"That's okay. I know you're really busy!" Harley happily said.
"How've you been?" Strip sincerely asked.
"I'm good! But Doc's got me doing a lot of school work." Harley said with a twinge of annoyance.
"Good." Strip said, sounding more serious now. "An education is important, don't forget that."
"Okay, but it's just so boring." Harley complained.
"I know, but it must be done."
"Yeah…." Harley didn't exactly agree with her uncle, but pretended she did anyways. "Oh!" she suddenly remember what she wanted to ask "I wanna know how you did on your race today! Did you win?" Strip chuckled at her excitement.
"Well, it was going pretty good," he then decided to exaggerate the story a bit, "But there's a car that really really wants me to loose."
"Oh no!" Harley said in a sad tone. "What did he do?"
"Well, for the first few laps, I did what I always do; cut him off, don't let him pass."
"You shall not pass!" Harley suddenly yelled. "Doc was telling me a story, but that's all I remember. It was about magic though!"
"Cool." Strip said as he laughed at the comment. "Anyway, this guy -his name is Chick Hicks- started to get really mad. So he pushed me and made me lose balance!"
"What did you do!" Harley frantically asked.
"Well, as I was swearing Hicks and a few others passed me, but thanks to my spoiler, I get back to driving straight and keenly maneuvered around the other cars. Then I quickly passed up Hicks-"
"Leaving him in the dust! Take that, Hicks!" Harley said and they both laughed together. "What else happened?"
"a lot a cars took a pit-stop, including me, but something went wrong."
"Wrong? What went wrong?" Harley asked, eager for the details, even if they were somewhat out of perspective.
"My team was going crazy!"
"Because you had a huge lead?"
"No," Harley held held her breath, "Because my spear tires were missing!"
"What! I bet Hick's team stole them!" Harley angrily said.
"Who know, but for the next few laps, I was treading on thin ice. I even lost the lead a couple of times." Harley gasped at her uncle's tale. "But my next pit stop was quicker than the last! And my team got me some new tires and back on the track in a jiffy."
"Yay! That's awesome!" Harley celebrated, "Did you win?"
"I sure did." Harley bounced on her tired and Strip chuckled at the excitement in her voice.
"Yay, Yay Yay! How many point do you have now?" Strip paused and thought for a minute.
"Oh, I have t- a- twe- th-"
"Hello? Hellooooo?" Strip's voice became choppy.
"I'm sor-y, Ha-ey. I'm bre-ing up. I'm i- m- -ailer go-ng back to - ra- hea-arters."
"What?"
"I'- talk t- y- la-er." Strip's voice was choopy, but Harley still tried to make sense of it. "- lo- y-u." he said then he hung up leaving the line beeping.
"Hm. That was weird." Harley said then hung up the phone and drove out to find Doc.
Once outside, she headed straight for the café. She seemed a little deflated, but then upon her arrival, she saw that Doc was waiting with a plate of food beside him. Harley picked up speed as fast as her smile returned.
"Hey Doc! Is that yours?" she asked, gesturing a tire at the food.
"Oh no, I've eaten already. This is for you." Doc explained.
"Oh, okay!" Harley said and went over beside him. She started to put her bumper down and eat when Ramone then spoke up.
"Mijita, Doc said you were talking with your uncle." he said and Harley nodded, her cheeks puffed with food. Doc saw this and nudged her.
"Don't stuff your face that much; you'll choke. One bite at a time." he scolded her. She swallowed hard then nodded again.
"Okay." She said then took a small bites of her oil and cheese burger.
"Heh, anyways. How'd you uncle do in that race?" Ramone continued.
"Mm! E i aeshome!"
"Harley. Don't talk talk with your mouth full, we've discussed this." Doc again scolded. And again, she swallowed her food.
"Right, sorry Doc." Doc sighed as he watched her. "Um, Uncle Strip did really good." Harley said and turned back to Ramone. "He got first place!" The others seemed happy at the news.
"That's fantastic, sugar!" Flo said with a wide smile. "You should he proud of him!"
"I am! But I don't know how many points he has. The phone started making his voice sound cut up. So we ended the talk." She looked disappointed, but Doc again nudged her, but much more caringly this time.
"He was probably in his trailer and headed home from the race." She the. looked up at him. "You can try calling him again tonight; does that good?" Harley smiled.
"Yeah, sounds good."
And that was her life.
She studied, she listened to the radio, she hung out, she ate, she slept. Of course, she had a yearly check up at the clinic done by Doc, of course, and the rest of her time was spent listening to stories. They days went by, the summers were hot, the winter nights were cool. It wasn't until she was ten that she started to want to venture off on her own. Her curiosity pulling her to belong the old town buildings and off to the unknown road ahead. She became a sneaky one. She sometimes looked far down the road when she went to go watch the county line with Sheriff. This was one of those days. Harley said bye to Doc then went off with Sheriff to their post. Before getting behind the billboard though, Harley stopped and looked down the road. For a few seconds, Sheriff looked her over. He saw how she was starting to look older. Her eyes duller shade of green and looked almost grayish-blue now. Her body shade was becoming more feminine and less childlike. Sheriff nostalgically scoffed. She had been with them for many years now. But at the same time, it felt as if it were only a month to him.
"Harley, what do see?" He asked. In the five years, his voice had even changed a little. It was ever so slightly rougher; simply older. But it was still as friendly sounding as before.
"Not much." Harley admitted. Her own voice taking its own form of maturity. Again, Sheriff scoffed.
"Your voice says one thing, but your eyes say another." He said and Harley turned to him. Her eyes were opened wide with confusion. It gave her a look of innocence and youth, as if she would never grow up.
"What does that mean?" she asked, even further proving how young she really was. "Eyes can't speak." Sheriff laughed, but Harley was still very much confused.
"I mean you look like you see something," Sheriff explained, "even if it's not actually there. You're thinking of something." Harley then had a look of understanding fill her face.
"Ohh," she then went over to join him. "Then why didn't you ask what I was thinking instead?" Sheriff chuckled and shrugged his tires.
"I guess I just wasn't thinking myself." He said. "But really, where we're you 'thinking' just then?" Harley furrowed her eyelids slightly.
"Just thinking. I mean, I wonder what's out there. How far could I go? What would I see? Are there other towns like this? Bigger ones? Smaller ones?" by now Harley had forgotten about her hometown of Auburn, California. She only vaguely remembered her mother, but even less than her mom, her father was a distant and far away day-dream. At least, on the bright side, she only remembered Jeremy in foggy nightmares she had every once in awhile. But as the years past, the bad dreams became less repetitive. It was all in the past and all felt like just a bad dream. Sheriff thought carefully about how to answer her.
"Well, Harley, there are some other towns in our country, but they're not what you expect. Some of them are ghost towns meaning no one lives there anymore."
"That sounds so sad." Harley said as she kept her eyes on the road.
"It is." He said and looked past her and at the direction of his distant home town. "I was always afraid something like that could happen here."
"Are you still afraid?" Harley asked and looked up at him. Sheriff then looked down at her, realizing that he didn't need to look down as far as when they first talked.
"As long as we call this place home, that will never happen." he said with a soft smile, but then it slightly faded as he looked away. "But it would be nice if other cars passed through. Like in the old days…" Harley followed his gaze and looked at the road herself.
"What do mean? What happened?" She asked and Sheriff nostalgically smiled.
"Well, when. I was your age back in 1950 -yes that year existed- i saw this town bustling with business. There was music, lights. But then," his smile quickly faded, "in 1974, before you were even made, Interstate 40 was finished being built."
"What's that?" Harley always had a tendency to but in and ask questions as soon as she thought of them.
"it a road that stretches across a lot of land. But instead of moving with it like this road, it cuts through it."
"Like, just cuts it? It makes holes in mountains?" Sheriff nodded at her analogy.
"Yeah, it makes holes in mountains." Sheriff agreed with her and then continued. "For a while after it was done being built, it actually brought us some business. But that didn't last very long. By 1985, Route 66 was shut down for good." Sheriff saw Harley's mouth open to asked a question, but Sheriff quickly answered it for her before she uttered a word. "That road in front of you is Route 66, Harley." she nodded in understanding, then looked confused again.
"So, is it still on the map if it's shut down?" Sheriff sadly shook his hood.
"No... no, it's lost to the pages of history now." he said and Harley nodded.
"That's … sad." She thought for a second before speaking. "I don't think I like that…." she admitted.
"I don't either…" Sheriff said. He saw the light from the sun get duller and the shadows of everything else get longer. "It's getting late. Maybe you should head back to the clinic before Doc gets upset." Harley was spent as she stared at the road. She then quietly looked at Doc.
"No, I don't think he'll get mad if I stay out here with you a little longer." she said and Sheriff looked down at her and smiled. She then surprised him but nuzzle ing his side in a sort of affectionate hug that she only ever did to Doc and a few times to Flo. Sheriff tensed at first, then melted into it and nuzzled her back.
"Don't fall asleep on me, okay? Doc would have a tractor if I let you sleep here." Harley slightly nodded with a small yawn.
"O...Okay, Sheriff. I'll try not too." Sheriff didn't find much hope in her response, and of course she fell asleep. But he didn't expect for her to fall asleep leaning on him. Doc came looking shortly after it was dark and saw she was out.
"Hm… a little drowsy I see." Doc said and to Sheriff surprise again, he chuckled.
"Yeah, she sorta dozed off here." Sheriff said and Doc nodded.
"Well, since it doesn't seem like she's going home for the night I'll just 'doze off' here with her." Sheriff looked at his good friend curiously.
"Are you sure? I could just stay out here with her, you don't have to-"
"It's fine, Sheriff. Besides, I'm in charge of her. I have to know where she is, and out here, I think she needs double the protection." Sheriff quietly scoffed.
"I'm sure a kidnapper would be very intimidated by two old car like us." Doc returned the soft scoff.
"Most definitely." He said and parked himself on the other side of Harley. "Thank you for watching out for her and helping me out." Doc said and smiled as he watched her sleep. "I've never had a child before, so this is all new." Sheriff was looking as Harley then looked up to see Doc and nodded.
"I've think we can all say it's something new."
A/N: Once again, remember to please like, review, ff and ALSO fhere is a poll in my profile, please go vote! it's currently a tie and I'm torn! I needs the helps!
