The Legend: The Love of Ryan Sumpter

by Samuelson, Philip

  The rest of the evening was like a dream. She really had planned it all out. Hermann fixed us dinner, an Alabama delicacy from what she said, and a family recipe. I had to ask her later what it was. It was angel hair pasta with piace pellerosa sauce, and it was phenomenal. Then we finished that off with chocolate chip peanut butter cup pie... This woman, whew she took the medal. Don't know what medal it was, but it tasted great and she deserved it.

  She took me for a walk through her family's orchard. We walked together for what seemed like miles. It was such a sweet walk, so sincere, so simple. She was such a cute girl, she was swinging our hands while we walked, every once in a while grabbing my hand with both of hers and playfully tugging as she told me stories from her childhood. The coolest part about the evening was it seemed like the sun fought to stay above the horizon so we could continue to walk. I figured it would have grown dark far earlier than it did.

  Toward the end of the walk, at a point when I had no idea where we were and it was almost completely dark, she grabbed my hand and pulled me into a corner. It was a very secluded place, we were closed in by a couple of stone walls and some trees. Mary-Margaret wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.

  “I'm taking it that this is your hideaway?” I asked her.

  “This is where I go whenever I need to escape. I'd come here and hide. I used to lie and tell my mom that I was walking through the orchard, but right here I was the whole time,” she said.

  “You need to escape right now?”

  “Not exactly. I don't want to have any secrets from you. Nobody knows about this, not even Hermann. Only you. I can't lie to you, I can't hide from you.” She kissed me again.

  We stood there lip-locked for probably ten minutes. It was, to that point, the most magical ten minutes of my life. I found it very hard to believe this angelic young lady could have a heart defect. I did wonder if it would affect her life at all. It was already clear that I was in trouble with this one. This was the kind of girl I could see myself having an epic romance with. One thing Ayrton and I always knew was that we were both destined for nothing but greatness. Part of that greatness was going to be great love. Not a standard love, not a normal love. Great love. Great love is polar, where the two people cannot escape each other no matter how hard they try. Great love can be complicated, and at times it can even be insincere. But great love never dies, it does not balk. No matter the stakes, it does not fail. It may fall apart, but the polarity of the couple will build it back up. You can bend it, but you can't break it.

  “Mmm, seven minutes in heaven,” Mary-Margaret said with a grin.

  “I think that was more like fifteen minutes. But yes, yes uhh... Fifteen minutes in heaven. I'm down for fifteen more if you are,” I told her, drawing a laugh. Her laugh was intoxicating.

  She kissed me once more. “We should get in. It's getting dark and I've got one more thing to show you tonight.”

  She led me inside. As we passed Hermann, I gave him a gentlemanly nod. Mary-Margaret led me to the stairs and suddenly stopped. “Hang on, wait here. I have to get something ready.”

  Mary-Margaret headed up the stairs, leaving Hermann and me waiting there together.

  “How is your evening going, sir?” he asked.

  I couldn't help but smile ear to ear. “Amazingly, I can't believe how great she is.”

  “She is something else. I may be overstepping my bounds, but I have to say she is quite smitten with you.”

  “That is so flattering. As beautiful and amazing as she is, somehow she wants me. I mean, I've never felt that before, ya know? It's like a dream come true,” I told him.

  “You are her dream come true, sir. She's been dreaming about you her entire life, she just didn't know you were the person she was dreaming about.”

  Mary-Margaret rushed down the stairs and wrapped her arms around my waist. She spoke with a girlishly playful tone. “I'm ready now. You ready?”

  “Absolutely,” I said as I flashed Hermann a quick smile. He gave me a wink as Mary-Margaret and I headed up the stairs. She led me to her bedroom and closed the door behind us. She sat me down on her bed and took out a binder that was filled to the brim.

  “I want to show you something,” she said as she opened the binder. Everything you could fathom relating to a person’s life was in it. From drawn pictures of the future to color squares from a paint store to fabrics. She started rifling through the stuff and I stared at her silky hair and took in the smell of her perfume. Didn't I just spend a couple hours looking at her? I couldn't get enough. I wanted to keep looking. She was just so gorgeous. I could creep on that girl all day and never get bored.

  She took a picture out. It was a picture she had drawn a very long time ago, or so it appeared. “See this? Look at that couple. Tell me who they look like.”

  I looked at the couple. Although it was drawn by a six year old, it was rather clear. The girl was her. The guy – It was me. It looked exactly like me. She had drawn us standing outside of her house. My hair color was perfect, hair length was perfect, height was perfect... She had drawn me fifteen years before she ever knew me. She even got my abnormally long arms right. Although in the picture, it looked like I had my elbows removed...

  “It looks like a perfect girl with a guy who tends to be a little squared off on the edges,” I told her.

  “No. He's flawless. And I want him to be mine,” she responded.

  No question about it. This girl... She was my future. Sometimes you just know when you're made for someone and that someone is made for you. Mary-Margaret was my perfect match. I honestly knew it at the time, this wasn't just young love talking.

  One thing Yusuf always challenged me to do – Find the word. Describing someone across paragraphs and pages is easy. I never had one for Natalie, perhaps I should have taken that as a sign that she wasn't right for me. I certainly could go on and on about Mary-Margaret. But what word would best describe her?

  Perfect. Mary-Margaret was perfect.

  We spent another several hours looking through her scrapbook. This girl had planned out her entire life. No kidding. She had wedding plans in there, house ideas, children, everything. When she was finally through the entire book, she closed it and looked at me. She seemed afraid all of a sudden. I hadn't said much, I was letting her explain the whole thing to me.

  “You think I'm crazy,” she said.

  “Mary-Margaret, I drive around in circles for four hours at a time. I sit in a seat that is strapped to a bomb just waiting for my number to be called. I have no room to call anyone crazy,” I told her.

  “Yeah, but – Surely you must think there's something wrong with me,” Mary-Margaret continued. Let me think about that... No. Nothing was wrong with her. But this spat of insecurity caught me off-guard. She was easily the most beautiful young lady I'd ever seen and not a chance in hell I was the only man who thought that about her. How could she be insecure? That didn't make much sense to me.

  “There's nothing wrong with you. I'll tell you something that my mentor, Yusuf, told me years ago. You have to be careful planning into the future, because if you get too detailed with it and your plans come true, it'll be a memory instead of an experience.”

  “That's the funny thing. When I first met you back in April, I forgot about this binder and all the plans. I just wanted to be with you, experience things with you. I spent tons of time on this binder, and now, it's as if it's worthless to me.”

  That binder may have been rendered worthless to her, but I knew one thing she would never be to me – Worthless. Even if something happened and we broke apart sooner rather than later... Mary-Margaret had shaped the entire rest of my life in just twelve hours. We laid down, she put her head on my chest. She was listening to my heartbeat, which made me quite nervous. I'd never had anyone want to feel and hear the life in me like that. This girl made me melt. She made me think about the future in ways I never had before. If you had asked me what I thought about the future just one day before, I would
have told you what I wanted for dinner. I never thought about the future in any huge way. Now, I was thinking about what I could do for her now, next, and down the road. The last thing I ever wanted to experience was Mary-Margaret unhappy.

  We saw a very successful end to the season. I was able to bring home the championship in record fashion. Chaz had started his career as a driver and brought home several great finishes. Ben had quickly made a name for himself as a top crew chief in the racing world after leading the team to three straight championships. And Ayrton... He wanted to become an international icon as a master mechanic. He was getting there, at least he was a national icon already.

  Things with Mary-Margaret were amazing. We were still in the honeymoon period, but equally we were hitting that part of a relationship where we were settling in. It was great, though, because we still couldn't get enough of each other. She started a children's welfare foundation for small towns across the country. I was able to help drum up some money for her with appearances, although Ayrton garnered her even more money than I could. I wonder how many people he had to blackmail by sleeping with their wives to get the number he got. It was outrageous. Oh well, his tricks always worked. No argument here.

  On Christmas Eve, Mary-Margaret and I showed up at my parents’ house in Ohio for the yearly family gathering. Everybody was there. My uncles, aunts, cousins, and of course my parents. Mary-Margaret wanted some time on her own to work the room. She was immediately snagged by my cousin Alana's husband, Juan. I knew exactly what he was going to do. He was going to be hitting on her. Dude was a pathetic waste of existence, I have no idea what Alana ever saw in his arrogant underachieving ass. I knew Mary-Margaret could hold her own against him though.

  I gave my mother a hug and headed downstairs to visit with my dad. I spent about half an hour with him before heading back upstairs. I was quickly tagged by my uncle Mark, who was about the biggest, most self-centered asshat you could ever imagine finding on the face of the planet.

  “So I heard you were racing cars these days. How'd you ever get that gig? I mean you've never raced a car before,” Mark said. That's right. My own family had absolutely no idea that I was a three-time champion in auto racing, all the while setting and breaking records and doing things nobody else had done before. Thank God Ayrton and his date showed up right at that moment.

  “Excuse me,” I said to Mark as I pushed past him and rushed to Ayrton and his date. “Hey dude, thanks for coming.”

  “No doubt, brother. This is my date, Alyson,” he said, trying to sound like as much of a gentleman as he could.

  “Beautiful name. Mary-Margaret is around here somewhere. I'll surely introduce you two before the end of the night.” Suddenly, I was interrupted by Juan, who had finally stopped hitting on my girlfriend and smelled like a fifth of Jack. Or was it Jim? I couldn't tell. At least I knew it wasn’t Dom. Dom tended to stay at weddings and in The Vegas.

  “Hey, there he is!” Juan yelled.

  “We'll catch up later,” Ayrton said as he ducked out with Alyson.

  “So, so... You think you're some kind of race car driver? Eh?” Juan slurred.

  “You could say that,” I responded. I was trying to keep this situation from getting too nasty, it seemed like he was looking for a fight.

  “Yeah, you're not going to go anywhere with that. You suck, kid. You can't do shit. You'll never be anything. I mean, did you even graduate high school? You're going nowhere, kid, and that's the only place you're gettin' to fast,” Juan said. He continued on for several more minutes, but I tuned him out. Mary-Margaret was across the room, and I couldn't help but look at her.

  More than ever before, her beauty was overwhelming. She hadn't a clue the effect she had on me. She was talking to Alana, who was one of the only sane members of my family. Our eyes met randomly. She took her flute of wine, raised it in the air, and smiled. So adorable she was. Why she ever gave a scrub like me a chance, I'd never know. What I did know was that I would cherish her forever.

  I zoned out for longer than I thought I did... Ayrton approached me and tapped me on the shoulder.

  “Dude, you need to take care of your cousin,” he told me.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah, Juan is out on the front lawn, man. He's --” Ayrton was interrupted by the crash of a bottle against the front of the house.

  “Oh shit,” I said as I rushed to the door. The party had grown silent, Mary-Margaret looked very worried as I glanced at her before exiting. Ayrton followed me out the door, Alyson was close in tow behind him.

  “Yeah, here he is! Ladies and gentlemen! Here to save the fucking day! Ryan fucking Sumpter, world class race car driver!” Juan sarcastically yelled as soon as I stepped outside.

  “Juan, you need to go home. Let me call you a cab, we can figure this out,” I said. I could feel Ayrton getting closer, surely he wanted to put the guy on the ground. I didn't want to make it any worse than it had to be. I held up my finger to him, just trying to keep his temper from piquing. I was hoping Alyson would step in and help calm him. He was always so protective of everyone on the team, especially me though. I was his driver, he was my mechanic. You'd think Ben would be just as protective, but he was never there in situations like this. It was just me and Ayrton most of the time.

  “Figure this out? Fuck you, man! You are a worthless waste of life. You think you're something? You are so stupid. I'm the one with the education! I am the lawyer! You fucking drive cars for a living, kid, you are nothing,” he continued.

  “With all due respect, Juan, you may have graduated, but you graduated dead last in your class.” I kind of knew this one would hit a nerve. I was only going to take so many of his puerile shots. Eventually I had to fire back. I knew if I didn't, Ayrton was going to leave this party with a pint-sized tattoo of Juan's face on his fist.

  “All right, that's it. We're doing this,” Juan said as he loosened his cravat and threw it aside. He started to roll up his sleeves, and it was at that point that I realized how woefully underdressed I was for this party. My sleeves were already rolled up, no tie, untucked button up with jeans. Hey, my style is my style. I make no excuses, no apologies.

  “Juan, I'm not going to fight you,” I told him. No sooner were those words out of my mouth, he rushed me and threw a punch. He was so drunk, it was simple to avoid it. He came through with another and I had to back up. I was almost to the front deck, so I had to make a decision. Put Juan on his ass or bail out completely. At that point, though, bailing out was no longer an option. I had to punch or be punched.

  Thankfully, Ayrton taught me a little something about fighting. A couple years ago, he wanted to make sure I knew how to defend myself in case things happened after a race or something. Juan threw a left, a right, another wild left and boom... I gave his left a forearm shiver and his chin a right handed uppercut. Aaaand he was down. Ding ding ding, asshole.

  “Holy shit dude, I didn't know you had that in you,” Ayrton exclaimed.

  “I didn't want to embarrass him. He gave me no choice,” I responded. Alana soon came out with their kids, Ayrton and I loaded Juan in her van and they left. One by one, people left the party soon after. My mother had to have been so ashamed of me at that point. My dad had gone to bed, Ayrton and Alyson joined Mary-Margaret and myself in the basement. Mary-Margaret and I cuddled on the couch, Alyson was fast asleep on Ayrton's lap.

  “You two are so cute together,” Mary-Margaret said.

  “She's pretty great,” Ayrton responded.

  “How's she doing after everything?” I asked him. I hadn't gotten all of the details about what happened, but from my understanding, Alyson got caught up in a pretty nasty wreck on I70 and Ayrton had to help.

  “She's strong, she'll be just fine. She's getting pretty attached though. I just don't know about it all.”

  “Why would that be a problem? She seems perfect for you,” Mary-Margaret said.

  “Long story,” he responded.

  I later found out w
hat happened with Ayrton and Alyson. Ayrton pried her out of her wrecked car during the recent snowstorm, which was the worst on record for Ohio. He rushed her to the hospital and got her the help she needed. But Alyson's family didn't like Ayrton. No thank you, no gratitude, just an escort away from the hospital. Alyson found him after she was released and she had been hiding out with him ever since. Things with the two of them lasted all of three months before he freaked like he did with every girl. He'd met an amazing girl at the Texas Spring race that year, a young hottie named Seratti. He even went out and bought a Maserati MC12 because she asked him to. I'd never seen him do anything like that for a girl. But he screwed that one up in three months flat as well.

  1999 and 2000 didn't provide much in the way of excitement. I won the championship both years, and all of the four cars the team entered performed well. Chaz was making huge strides and finished top ten in points both years. Our other two drivers, Bryan and Kieren, finished top twenty both years.

  On April 22nd of 1999, Mary-Margaret and I were enjoying some time at her house the day before practice began for the Spring Talladega race. It was the one year anniversary of the first time I laid eyes on her. After that experience and our first time at her house in October, it was very clear we were going to have some incredible experiences in Reece City. As for this visit, we were just sitting there. I was pouring over Ayrton's weekly car report. Mary-Margaret was reading a book, her head lying in my lap as she was curled up right next to me.

  “Is it raining?” Mary-Margaret said as we both heard the crackles of rain drops against the windows.

  “Sounds like it,” I responded nonchalantly. Mary-Margaret jumped up, put her book down. She ripped the notes out of my hands and put them down. Next thing I knew, she was dragging me out the back door as the rain intensified.

  Not long after we got outside, we were completely soaked. She was wearing this sheer little southern dress. It was a shiny white knee-length dress with flowers on it. I didn't know if she noticed that once it got wet, I could see right through it. I was trying to be a gentleman and not pay attention, but damn. When my girl looks that sexy in the rain, it's hard not to notice her assets.