The interview turned out to be an all-day affair. It shouldn't have been, yet somehow, it was, leaving Doc more than a little weary by the time they returned to the trailer that evening.
"Next time you hear me agree to do one of those," the kid sighed, kicking off his shoes, "hit me over the head with a frying pan."
Doc couldn't help but lace his voice with a bit of dry humor. "Whatever happened to 'it's cool to be on TV?'"
Lightning shook his head. "I take it all back. Forget I ever said that. Why do I keep thinking TV's fun and cool? It's always just long." The kid waved a hand at the fridge as he made his way toward the back of the trailer. "Help yourself to whatever. I think there's still some pizza left. 'Night, Doc."
It was only a little past dinner time, yet Doc watched the kid slide his door shut; heard his groan and flop on the bed through the thin walls.
If Doc wasn't so wiped out himself, he would've thought more about Lightning's sudden disappearance, but as it was, he reheated some pizza and joined Mack for another cold beer.
"Have you ever met him?" Doc surprised himself with his own sudden question as much as he did Mack.
The trucker took a sip of his drink. "Who?"
"The kid's agent."
"A few times, yeah." Mack gave half a shrug. "Used to come to Lightning's races. It's been awhile since he did that, though. Now, he mostly just calls."
"You talk to him a lot?"
Another shrug. "Not usually, but there's been a few times when Lightning's passed the phone to me. That's when I know he's had enough."
"Enough of...?" All Doc got from his fishing was a final shrug.
"All I know," Mack went on, "is that the kid's never been this busy. But then, I guess we've only been in the big leagues for one season so far..."
Something wasn't settling right in Doc's stomach, and it wasn't the poor excuse for pizza from a place he'd never order from again.
No, it was something he couldn't quite put his finger on…
… Until the kid emerged that night. Mack had gone to bed long ago and Doc was just about to put a cap on his evening reading when Lightning shuffled out of his room.
Looking as if he hadn't slept a wink.
"Hey, Doc," he mumbled, grabbing a slice of pizza and eating it cold as he leaned against the counter.
"You look like hell, rookie."
"Thanks," came the dry response. "You always say the nicest things."
They shared a light chuckle before Doc asked, "Can't sleep?" The kid just shook his head while he finished his pizza. "Any particular reason why?"
"You know," Lightning said after a minute, "when you're so tired, but you're, like, too tired? Like, so tired you actually can't fall asleep?"
"Honestly? No."
This brought a bit of a smile to the kid's face. "Well, that's why, I guess."
Another few minutes passed by in comfortable silence before Lightning cleared his throat, arms crossed as he studied the floor. "So… you can totally say no, but, uh, would you be open to—and seriously, it's no big deal if you can't do it—but there's this other interview in San Antonio and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind, uh… well, doing it with me."
"Television?" When the kid nodded, Doc cocked a brow. "Wasn't this supposed to be the last one?"
"Plans change," came the reply. "Sometimes stuff comes up, and some opportunities are too good to pass up. But like I said, I'd totally get it if you'd rather go home. I really appreciate you even coming out here in the first place."
Suppressing a sigh, Doc patted the seat beside him. "Sit down, son."
Though hesitant, Lightning joined him on the large sofa.
"First off, I like Texas, so I'd be more than happy to join you." Relief flooded the kid's face at this, but Doc wasn't finished. "Now, hold on before you get too excited. You haven't heard my second point yet."
"All right. Shoot."
Doc inhaled, studying the kid's face as he said, "How much does your agent get out of all this?"
"What, Harv?" He scrunched his nose. "What does he have to do with anything?"
"I think the better question is: what doesn't he have to do with all this? Seems to me he's the one calling all the shots whether you like it or not."
"Hey, I wanted to do all this. He's booked things for me I never could've even hoped to achieve on my own. Like that interview, for one. I mean, do you know how many channels that's gonna be on? How many millions of people are going to see that?"
"I get it, kid, a lot of people watch TV, but what I don't get is why it all has to be crunched into such a short amount of time. It's been, what? A week? Two weeks? Seems to me the off season lasts long enough for some of these interviews to be spread out a bit more."
"Yeah, but we have to get it all in before the hype dies, you know? No one's gonna care in February, too much time will have passed. That's why we have to get it all in now, to remind them to care, you know?"
"Son, February's only two months away. If there's one thing you can count on lasting nearly forever, it's sports headlines."
Lightning seemed to consider this for a brief moment, though not nearly as long as Doc would've liked, then quickly shook his head. "Better safe than sorry, I guess. Where's this all coming from anyway?"
Doc leaned back, heaving a sigh. "I've just been noticing things." Things that don't make sense. "One of the biggest being that fact that you're ten times more exhausted than you were before you left. And it hasn't even been that long."
The kid shrugged. "I just need to sleep more, but I'm totally fine."
"Are you?"
At this, Lightning rolled his eyes. "Everyone has sleepless nights every so often, Doc. It's fine. It's not anyone's fault. And this thing in Texas'll be good, even if we weren't expecting it."
"Are you trying to convince me of that, or yourself?"
"All I'm saying is Harv's a pro at this; he knows what he's doing."
"And all I'm saying is it'd be odd for him to tack on so many unplanned interviews if he weren't making a hefty profit out of it all."
"Look, Doc," the kid began, massaging his eyes, "it's late. I don't really wanna go into all this right now."
This time, Doc swallowed his sigh. "I guess you're right. I was about to hit the hay anyway." He patted Lightning's shoulder. "Get some sleep, okay? Sounds like we've got a long drive ahead of us tomorrow."
Despite everything, the kid offered a small smile. "I'll try."
Doc didn't hear Lightning retire to his room that night, though he had assumed the kid wouldn't be too far behind him in heading to bed.
Finding Lightning passed out on the couch the next morning reminded him to never assume anything.
Right.
"Think it'd be okay to just leave him be?" Mack whispered, giving voice to the thoughts swirling in Doc's mind.
"God knows he needs the rest. Did he fill you in about Texas?" When the trucker shook his head, Doc repeated select parts of last night's conversation.
And the way Mack's face fell ever-so-slightly only added to his suspicions about this Harv fellow.
Whoever he was, it would seem he'd pulled stunts like this before.
"Well," Mack began, voice still low as he scratched his head, "wouldn't be the farthest I've ever driven on such short notice by any means, and it is on the way home… kind of. Anyway, can't argue with the boss." He gave a shrug, then quietly prepared a pot of coffee. "I can have us rolling out of here in a half hour."
Lightning jolted awake about ten minutes before they left, dashing Doc's hopes that the kid would catch up on some much needed sleep while they drove.
"What time did you get to bed last night?" Doc asked.
The kid poured himself some coffee. "I have no idea."
"So, late then. Well, if you're looking to rest a bit on the drive, I don't know that caffeine is the best thing for you."
"Coffee doesn't really do anything for me, don't worry. It just tastes good."
Despite coffee not doing anything for him, Lightning's energy level spiked halfway through the morning.
And we're not even out of Florida yet.
Fortunately, Mack had enough energy to keep up with the kid's constant chatter, and Doc found himself wondering how often they'd talked each other's ears off on those long drives to the tracks.
"Doc!"
He didn't realize he had begun to doze off until someone shook his shoulder.
"Doc, Doc, Doc! Look!"
"What? What am I looking at? And stop that," he added, brushing the kid's hands away. "I'm not a rag doll, rookie."
"Look, it's the ocean!"
Resisting the urge to massage his temples took just about everything in him. "Son, we literally just saw the ocean back in Daytona."
"Yeah, sure, but this is a different one. The Gulf of Mexico is waaay cooler. Oh, look!" By now, Doc wasn't sure the kid was even still in his seatbelt, he was leaning so far into the front of the cab. "Look at that lighthouse! I wonder how old it is…"
This time, Doc did massage his temples. "Remind me to hide the coffee when we get home. It clearly affects you more than you want to admit."
"Nah, it can't be the coffee. Coffee makes me sleepy."
"Really." Doc looked him up and down as Mack tried—and failed—to hide a chuckle. "You don't seem all that sleepy to me."
Lightning just shrugged. "I can't help it if this route is cool. Hey, have you ever been, like, so tired that instead of sleepy, you just get really hyped up instead?"
"Can't say that I have."
"Two out of ten, do not recommend, but it can be fun while it lasts, sometimes. Hey, look!"
This time, he pointed out something to Mack, who reacted with much more enthusiasm than Doc.
To be fair, he was still shaking the sleep from his eyes.
As the two chatted, he took a moment to study the kid. The dark circles under Lightning's eyes stood in stark contrast to his seemingly endless energy. Part of him wondered how much sleep the kid had gotten last night.
That "endless energy" came to a definite end toward the later afternoon hours, when everyone was feeling the beginnings of road weariness.
That's when Lightning got the first call.
"Can you get there a day early?" Lightning mimicked a voice Doc didn't recognize before sharing a knowing look with Mack as he answered his phone.
By now, Doc had decided that the kid had definitely ditched his seatbelt, if the way had been lounging longways in the backseat was any indication.
The conversation at its start sounded very similar to some of the others Doc had overheard, featuring short, one to two word answers from Lightning while the caller on the other end took up most of the talking time.
Soon, however, it took somewhat of a different turn when the kid's tone got more heated than usual.
"Look, I'm not doing that to him again… No… Yeah, because that went so well last time… Don't you even remember? You don't, do you? … It literally just happened, like, a few weeks ago! … No, I'm… No… No, we'll get there when we said we would, not before, all right? … Sure… Whatever… Wait, really? Oh… No, yeah… Yeah, okay… Bye."
He'd barely hung up when he heaved a sigh and said, "Called it. I told him we're not driving all night. Besides," he added, leaning forward over Doc's seat again, "there's this really cool hotel in Baton Rouge, so we should totally stop there."
"Well," Mack began, "I can always try to take it through the night."
But Lightning was shaking his head before the man even finished.
"No," came the firm reply. "No, I'm not doing that to you again. He just wanted us there early because, apparently, he's flying in and wanted to go over a few things before the interview. But we'll get there in plenty of time, even if we stop."
Doc didn't miss the way Mack's brows shot up. "He's actually gonna be there?"
"I know," Lightning chuckled, returning to using the back seat as a makeshift bed. "Crazy, right?"
"Well," Doc said, "I guess this means I'll finally get to meet this guy. Harv, is it?"
"Yeah, maybe." The kid didn't sound too convinced. Almost as if this new piece of information was too good to be true.
As if he'd gotten used to this agent of his being no more than a disembodied voice on the phone rather than a physical presence.
Lightning made a vain attempt to stifle a yawn. "Don't get your hopes up, though. I never do."
Right.
As the kid began to wage war against sleep—determined, it seemed, to keep his eyes open and be engaged—Doc watched the landscape float by, his mind fixed on the problem Lightning apparently didn't realize he was caught in.
The one in which his agent worked him half to death and called it business—and the kid seemed fine with it.
That, or he can't see what's right in front of him.
Mack had to have noticed… Right?
He eyed the trucker, who was just finishing up a story about one of his and Lightning's past road-trips. Maybe Mack had noticed, but couldn't do anything without risking his job.
Or maybe, they're both oblivious idiots.
The kid had been softly snoring for all of five minutes when his phone rang again.
Doc surprised himself by his own reflexes when he snatched up the phone and switched off the ringer before Lightning could even begin to stir awake.
Mack shot him a questioning look, to which Doc simply shrugged.
"I'm sure it can wait."
He could've been wrong, but Doc was almost sure he saw the makings of a relieved smile on Mack's face.
And a grateful one.