by Shey Stahl
The last three years I’d spent doing nothing but working at the shop while my family was on the road. I missed that. I missed my family.
My brother had two kids now and another one due in September. I hadn’t seen Jack since Christmas and Jonah, their youngest, same deal. They were growing up and didn’t even get to see their uncle. That sucks.
My sister, we were always so close and now she was off traveling the Cup series with Easton. No one barely saw her anymore.
My parents, same deal. I saw them more than the others because I was still living in their house but a good part of me felt like I saw Rosa the most.
I loved Rosa, but still, I wanted to be with everyone. I’m a very family-oriented kind of person.
But, in part, it was deeper than just being with my family. There was this feeling I got inside a race car and only inside a race car. A feeling I knew my dad and brother understood.
“Let’s play a game,” Hayden said drawing me back to her.
“Okay, what game?”
“Top ten favorites …” she suggested, then added, “I’ll ask first.” And then dove right into her questions. “Favorite food?”
“Steak.” That was a tough one. I loved steak but crab was a favorite, too.
“Person?”
“My mom.”
“Memory?”
I took a moment to consider her question. “Being in the pits at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals when my brother won for the first time.”
Hayden’s lips quirked into a soft smile. “Day?”
“Tuesdays.”
“Why?”
“I have dinner with my grandma every Tuesday night.”
Hayden smiled again, this time it was a sincere one and touched her eyes.
Looking back at the road I waited for her to ask another one.
“Race?”
“Chili Bowl.” I nodded. “I love the talent it draws.”
“Idol?”
“My dad believe it or not. He’s always so level-headed. Even when he’s pissed at me, he always knows what to say. But with his racing, there’s just something about it that you can see in him. I’ve never known anyone to put that much of themselves into anything. He kind of has this awe about him that makes you want to be half as good at anything as he is.”
I looked over at Hayden just then, her eyes had a slight mist to them.
When I was finished talking, she sat up straighter and pulled her hair into a messy bun. “Okay … about to get serious.”
“Position?”
I had to think about that one for a minute, and then decided on one we hadn’t done yet. “Doggie style.”
“Of course you’d say that,” she laughed shaking her head.
“Body part?”
“Ass.”
“Blonde or brunette?”
Moving my hand from the back of the seat, I trailed my fingertips over the back of her neck. “Blonde … until two weeks ago. Now I’ll never go back.”
That earned me a giggle as she turned her head to bite my hand when I pulled at her bun.
Fixing her hair, she prepared for her last question and directed me a serious but goofy expression. “Song?”
“Lay You Down by Sam Grow.”
“Nice.” Hayden gave me a wink, satisfied with my answers.
Relaxing, she turned again and faced me in the seat curling her legs up on the seat once more. It was slightly distracting because about ten minutes ago she said her jeans were too constricting and took them off. Now she was in her panties and one of my hoodies.
She looked fucking adorable.
Before I could get completely distracted, I really wanted to know her answers to this game. “Favorite food?”
“Mexican.”
“Person?”
She chewed on her lip tipping her head back and forth, deciding. “Anna.”
“Memory?”
“Actually, I don’t have one. But,” she paused, her eyes taking on a playful edge. “Our first time is right there now.”
“Okay, well then, before we met then?”
Concentrating on her fingers, she smiled. “Monday mornings when I would go over to Tate’s shop and hang out with him. He used to tell me stories about your dad.”
“He did?”
“Yeah.” Her head rested on her knees now. I could see it in her eyes she was starting to get tired. “Tate was kind of always the cool uncle so when my parents were being assholes, I’d go over to his shop and hang out with him. He always talked highly of Jameson.”
“They’ve always been good friends.”
“Day?”
“The day I brought Sampson home from the grocery store.”
I frowned, holding back my smile. With sarcasm, I said. “And we both know how that ended …”
“Stupid fucking fish.”
Laughing, I asked, “Idol?”
She frowned. “Haley.”
“It’s noble of you to think that, you know?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re seeing past what she’s made out to be. It sounds like deep down she was your best friend growing up but your parents ruined it for you by idolizing her and not you, equally, as it should have been.”
That reply earned me a kick to my legs resulting in me jerking the wheel. Luckily no one was in the other lane
“What was that for?”
She shook her head, a look of guilt taking over. “I hate how right you always are.”
“Naturally.”
Hayden turned and rolled down the window letting the cool spring morning inside.
“What are you doing?”
“Making room for your head. It’s suffocating me.”
I slumped my shoulders pretending to be hurt by her remark. That did nothing.
“Alright,” I chuckled pulling her back over to me and rolling up the window. “Position?”
She snuggled against my lap kicking her legs out on the seat. “This one right here.”
I let my hand drop from the seat again and to her perfect stomach. Slowly I crept my hand under the sweatshirt to her soft skin and toyed with the edge of her panties. As softly as I could I ran my fingers over the black fabric. “Body part?”
Her hands raised from her sides and to my arms, her touch just as light as mine. “Arms. They hold you, support you, and give you strength to lift yourself up.”
“So do legs.”
“But arms are different. Legs can do everything your arms can but they do it in a more loving manner.”
Right then, I knew there was way more to Hayden than what meets the eye. So much more.
Her eyes were drifting shut, barely open as her breathing turned lighter and I knew soon she was going to fall asleep on me. “One more?”
“Hmmm …”
“Song?”
““Baby Got Back.” She giggled curling into the back of the seat.
Not ten minutes later she was snoring in my lap.
I’m not going to lie, her head was exactly where I wanted it but to wake her would be rude, right?
I learned after seven hours, Hayden had the ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Drove me crazy because I have never had that ability. I could never quiet my thoughts that easily.
My thoughts went back to racing.
As the sun began to rise and we drove through Mississippi, I thought more about the Chili Bowl and decided maybe it was time to get working on that car and catch a few midget races.
I hadn’t been inside of a car on a track since Terre Haute when I was eleven. I’d say I was a little rusty for sure.
Racing isn’t a solo act. It can’t be. I learned that early on and I knew had I said the word, I’d have the support. When you race, you show up at a track with your helmet and you get inside a car. Suddenly, you are alone.
And then being alone, inside that car, it starts to define you because despite being around your team, it comes down to only you. It comes down to the choices you’re about to make
, your hands, your responses and the guys around you.
You’re rubbing up against other drivers, guys who deserve a win a little more than you, but it all comes down to you.
Sometimes I wonder if I even know who I am and what’s happened to me over the years. My family has suffered some tragic loses, some harder than others, and they’ve changed the way we live our lives. I knew that even ten minutes from now wasn’t guaranteed.
That way of thinking slowly changes you. It changes, and teaches you to think differently.
I looked down at Hayden once more and smiled. She changed my way of thinking and she didn’t even know it. I like to think, as I said, I’m the type of guy who sees shit for what it was.
I can’t stomach the bullshit of constantly guessing what is or isn’t.
But Hayden, she’s quirky like that. She keeps you guessing.
I have this feeling, it’s like I’ve always known her. And really, I have, but I didn’t know this side of her.
Drag – Resistance a driver will feel when passing through air at higher speeds.
Once we were on the road, somewhere outside of Jackson, Mississippi, I felt like Casten could have been soulmate for traveling. I’m not much of a talker just for the sake of talking. When I did talk, I had something to say.
Casten was the same way.
Most of the trip we said very little to one another other than that first burst of energy when we got on the road and played our ten favorites.
We stopped somewhere outside of Ruston, Louisiana, so Casten could rest for a few hours and then it was on to Texas. I had no idea how he could operate on such little sleep.
To pass the time we listened to music. While we agreed on most music, like our love for old school rap, Casten loved country.
I didn’t love it as much as he did.
We were half way through Big & Rich “Save A Horse” song when I felt something touch my foot. Not knowing what it was, I looked down and didn’t see anything.
Casten noticed I seemed on edge and turned the radio down and heard the strangest noise I’ve ever heard.
We both looked at each other immediately wondering what that popping sound was.
That’s when I saw a fucking snake.
“Snaaaaaake!” I yelled.
You would have thought the world had just exploded with the scream Casten let out.
Never. I mean never would I have thought a man could make a sound like that. Unless his fingernails were being ripped off.
I’ll give him credit, he collected himself and looked at me. Not calmly, but concerned nonetheless. “Fucking Tommy …” and then he said, “Don’t move.”
“It’s just a snake, Casten.” The snake seemed friendly trying to coil itself back in the dashboard. I imagined Tommy had probably stolen it from a zoo or pet store. “Animals like me.”
“Don’t move, Hayden. This isn’t a fucking pet. It’s a snake!” he replied, as if I didn’t know what was at my feet.
“I’m gonna kill Tommy. This is not funny.” Casten looked like he was going to have a mental breakdown. “It’s not funny at all.”
I tried to lift my legs away, just in case the snake wanted to play with my feet when I kicked the dashboard in the process.
And then, the snake came back out, rearing its black head with a yellow band just behind its eyes. Evidently I’d just pissed it off.
That bright bastard bit me on my big toe and then, for good measure, chewed on me.
For a brief moment I thought to myself, “What if he swallows me?”
Then I realized judging by the snake’s two-foot body there was no way that was happening. Hoped at least.
I took control, because I had to, and ripped the snake off my toe tossing it in Casten’s lap. Casten’s scream probably freaked it the fuck out.
I wasn’t sure what to do, I think it was about ready to latch onto me again when I rolled down the window and threw it out.
Casten, well, he was still screaming and swerving all over the place when I smacked him.
“It touched me! The ass touched me!”
I looked over at him and pressed the button to roll the window up. “Will you just drive the goddamn truck, asshole?”
“I’m trying!” He had both hands on the wheel, white knuckled and sweating.
Casten was absolutely no fucking help.
He pulled over after that and we sat alongside the highway staring at my toe.
“It looks like he just scraped it,” I said, inspecting it closer. There were two dots where his fangs had penetrated the skin for sure. Instantly, I was nauseous knowing this wasn’t good.
We sat there on the side of the road when Casten looked over at me.
“I hate snakes,” he said. “I wish they would all die.”
Part of me thinks I was disoriented or something. We should have been concerned earlier but neither of us had any idea we needed to get to a hospital.
Instead we stopped off to get food. However, when I was taking a drink of my Dr. Pepper and my mouth wouldn’t close properly and Dr. Pepper went all over the front of me, that’s when we took interest and realized there was a problem.
In fact, I had a panic attack. By that point, my foot was the size of a puffy marshmallow.
We were both in freak-out mode after that. For good reason. I also think because my blood was pumping so fast, it made the venom spread throughout my body quicker.
Casten called Tommy as we hunted for a hospital.
“Tommy, where are you?”
“At the track, why?” he had him on speakerphone so I could hear everything he said. I think it was by design. This was most definitely not something Casten wanted to be blamed for.
“Did you put a goddamn snake in my truck?” Casten demanded, glaring at his phone, and then my foot I had raised on the dash board, convinced I needed to keep it above my head.
There was a pause. A long pause.
“Did you?” Casten pressed.
“About that,” Tommy paused himself, and then started speaking really fast. “I misunderstood the guy completely. You should probably pull over and get that thing out. It crawled up in the dash after I put it on the seat.”
Casten shivered at the thought. He really did hate snakes.
I grabbed the phone and screamed. “Too late, TOMMY!”
By the time we got to the hospital my foot suddenly felt like it was on fire. As we walked through the doors of the ER at Northern Louisiana Medical Center, I mentally prepared for having my foot amputated. I was convinced that was my fate now.
And if I didn’t die from having my foot amputated, I was one, going to kill Tommy and then I’d be in prison, and two, going to die myself for letting Casten push me in a wheel chair.
I swear he couldn’t keep my foot that I insisted on sticking straight out in front of me from being rammed into wall.
“Just put your leg down,” he had said after the fourth time doing this over the span of moving ten feet. “It’d make it easier.”
“You get bit by a snake and then put your foot down!” I was literally screaming at the top of my lungs at that point. I was sure no one had been bitten by a snake before. Only me. And no one had ever experienced this much pain.
Once we got to the registration desk I realized that I didn’t have my insurance card. Luckily they were able to look up the information and soon had me back in a room where the doctor assessed everything.
“Wow,” he had said, looking rather intently at my foot with another younger female doctor beside him. “We don’t see many coral snake bites around here.”
“How do you know it was a coral snake?” Casten asked.
“Well,” he paused and pointed to the screen on his laptop next to him. “Did the snake look like this?”
The picture was one of a snake with red and black bands down its body. Then he went on to say. “Black and red, friend of Jack …”
Casten looked at me. “It had yellow on it …”
He swi
tched the page to another snake like the one that bit me. I remember it because of the yellow band behind its eyes. “Red and yellow, kill a fellow …”
Oh my God!
I think the doctor got a little nervous. Or maybe it was my screaming. “What time did you get bitten?”
“It was at like eleven this morning.”
The doctor looked down at his watch and then up at us again. “Symptoms can be delayed for twelve hours. After that the neurotoxins begin to spread to the brain and muscles.”
Casten raised his hand. “She couldn’t close her mouth.”
He considered that for a moment and then wheeled his way in front of me with his hands on my neck. “Okay, Hayden, can you raise your tongue and move it left to right?”
I thought I did. Apparently I did not and it was time for the anti-venom.
“An eastern coral snake’s venom acts as a neurotoxin.”
Those were the last words I heard before I passed out. Not from the venom. From my own personal panic attack.
I, Hayden Harris, had a full on freak out panic attack over a snake bite.
Turns out I got the anti-venom shot, in my ass, they bandaged my foot and sent me on my way when my vital signs checked out late Saturday night.
“How could Tommy be so dumb?” I wondered.
Casten chuckled helping me into his truck. “He’s forty-five and still pees the bed.”
That actually made sense. I wasn’t surprised by that one bit.
Casten called his parents after that and we made plans to meet up with them at a campsite they were staying at until the two-night show started tonight; luckily the campsite was only an hour from the speedway.
After another three-hour drive, we got to the campsite at Lake Tawakoni and Tommy was pacing.
“I’m really sorry, Hayden,” he immediately said.
Tommy did look sorry as he watched me limp over to a picnic table and throw my leg up on the bench dramatically. It hurt and it was still swollen but I was medicated…besides it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as I was playing it up to be.
“You put a snake in there but you didn’t think it would bite anyone?” Casten snapped at him shoving him against the side of his truck. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”