It was clear to Eunice by now that she really had a boyfriend, and one who she liked a lot. Granted, he wasn’t handsome and outgoing like Eric, but so far she hadn’t found anything about him she considered objectionable. Most importantly, he seemed to like her, and that counted for a lot.

It was Sunday before she saw Jeff again – it was just too far between Wychbold and Amherst to get together for no reason in particular. Since it was a long drive to the race course at Waterford Hills, pretty close to three hours, it was very early when he got to her house to pick her up; it was cool, and there was still dew on the grass.

She had gone out of her way to dress to impress him. It was a nice print outfit, tight enough to show that she really did have some breasts, with a skirt that was mid-thigh on her. It was a lot shorter than he would have ever seen her wearing, especially at Meriwether, where they barely admitted to the presence of ankles on girls. Her hair now had a bit of curl to it, and she had a little makeup on – not much, just enough to perk up some highlights. “Do you like this outfit?” she asked hopefully.

“It’s very nice, and it looks very good on you. You sure don’t look like that around Meriwether.”

“They are a bit backward,” she sighed. “I hope this will do for today. I didn’t have anything that let me look like I really wanted to, so I made this. It’s actually another playsuit, so if the skirt seems to be a little bit too formal I can take it off.”

“You made that? It looks wonderful!”

“Oh, yes,” she grinned. “I like to sew. It’s one of my hobbies. Mom was the one who mostly taught me how to do it, and I’ve made a lot of my clothes, even some of those dreadful things I have to wear at college. I’m thinking I may make a few new ones to get me through next winter so I don’t have to look like a Methodist nun all the time.”

“You won’t get any argument from me on that,” he grinned. “You really look sharp, Eunice. I’m impressed.”

“Well, I hoped you’d like it, so I guess it was a success. I have a picnic basket packed, but is there room in the cooler for some potato salad?”

“Plenty of room,” he said. “We might as well pack up and get going, since it’s going to be a long day.”

It took nearly an hour to drive over to Meridian to pick up Donna. Neither of them had been to her house before, but it was not hard to find. For once Eunice was better dressed than Donna, who was wearing jeans and a blouse although she said she had some shorts if it got warm later. The three of them got into the front seat of the Nash – Eunice in the middle, of course, so she could be close to Jeff – and got on the road again.

It was still plenty early and none of them had eaten breakfast, so they stopped at a little restaurant along US-112 to get something. By now it was pretty clear that Donna was less than totally excited about going to watch Eric race, but she said that she thought it was something she ought to do. “I suppose I ought to show my support,” she told them over breakfast. “It’s not anything that really appeals to me, and I hope he doesn’t get himself killed. But I have to show some interest, especially since he says he’s planning on taking off for a few days.”

Neither Jeff nor Eunice wanted to be the one to tell her than from what they knew of Eric’s plans he’d be gone more like a few weeks than a few days, so they tried to keep their mouths shut about them. Actually, Jeff didn’t think he’d be gone that long, but there was no way of telling. “He has a few other things he wants to do this summer,” was about the best he could comment to Donna.

“I suppose,” she sighed. “He actually asked me if I’d like to go with him, but I had to tell him no. My folks would go nuts if I were to go off with some guy for a week or so, and they’d make up their minds about what we were doing whether we were or not. Besides, I can’t get thrilled about spending that much time riding around in a sports car with my hair blowing all over, and then having to spend the night in a tent and a sleeping bag.”

“It might be fun for a while,” Eunice smiled. “But I think I’d get tired of it pretty quickly, too.”

“I wouldn’t mind doing it for a few days if I had to,” Jeff said. “But I can think of other things I’d rather be doing, too. I mean, my idea of camping out includes a flush toilet and comfortable beds. But it doesn’t seem to bother Eric.”

It was mid-morning before the three managed to find the race track; it turned out that Eric had already registered them and had a parking pass for the Nash. The track proved to be a pretty place, with lots of green trees and grass; from what they could see of the track it seemed to be on the twisty side, and the cars going by didn’t seem as if they were going extremely fast.

They were directed to the paddock area, where there were a lot of sports cars sitting around, along with other vehicles. Some of the cars looked fast and mean, but there were a lot more of them that looked like they were not as ambitious – somewhere about like Eric’s TR-2, from what they could tell.

There were several TR-2s and the newer but very similar TR-3s sitting around, but it didn’t take long to find Eric, who was busy with a screwdriver taking the windshield off his car. Fortunately, it didn’t appear to be a big job. “I was hoping you guys would show up pretty soon,” he said as Jeff parked the car. “Qualification starts in a few minutes and I didn’t want to have to run with the weight of all the stuff in the car.”

“Understandable,” Jeff nodded. “So how did the school go yesterday?”

“I passed it,” Eric said. “I am now a Sports Car Club of America certified race driver. The school was fun and I learned a few things, like it’s possible to push this a little too hard into the corners. I’m told it’s because this car is a little narrow and has a limited suspension travel. You can go too hard with it and get into trouble really quickly.”

“I didn’t know that,” Jeff shook his head.

“Don’t feel alone. I didn’t know it either, but I sure learned it the hard way. It goes around corners better than the Nash would on the best day it ever had, but that’s not a surprise. I don’t really expect to win anything, because there are some people here who are pretty serious about this. I mean they have the car set up to do nothing but race and have all sorts of little go-fast tricks. I just want to get a feel for it, and not embarrass myself too badly.”

“Sounds like a reasonable goal,” Jeff said. “Is parking the Nash here going to be all right?”

“As far as I know,” Eric shrugged. “I suppose it’s all right unless someone comes along and tells us to move it. I don’t think anyone’s going to mind, since I camped right here last night.”

For the next few minutes Jeff helped Eric get the windshield off the Triumph and get his baggage and camping gear out of it; they were all stacked neatly beside the Nash. They got out the coolers and the lawn chairs; it seemed like they were going to have a good view of the track from right there. However, it was out in the sun, but fortunately Eunice had thought to bring some suntan lotion, and she helped them all spread it. They could see that other people had spread sunshades of one kind or another, and it seemed to Jeff that something like that would be welcome on a sunny day like today.

Cars had been running around the track all the while they’d been setting up. They were fun to watch; some of the cars went around the corners they could see pretty smoothly, while others seemed to be all over the place. “It’s just a lot of cars going by,” Donna commented after a while.

“I suppose it would be more interesting to be doing the driving,” Jeff replied. “But I don’t think it’s anything I’d want to do.”

Soon Eric’s class was called for qualifications. “Well, wish me luck,” he said. He got into the Triumph, buckled the helmet, then started the car up and drove off.

They could see him get into a lineup of cars near the start-finish line, and soon they were waved out onto the track. There wasn’t really a great deal to see; they saw him driving past quickly several times, but with the exception of a guy in a red car passing him early on, there wasn’t anything specific to draw their attention. But there were no accidents or incidents, and no one ran off the road or anything like that. In a few minutes, someone waved a checkered flag, and the cars filed off the track.

“Donna, you’re right,” Jeff said as they waited for him to return. “It is just a lot of cars going by. I mean, it’s kind of interesting to watch once, but I don’t think I’d be up for it all the time.”

It was a while before Eric made it back. “I hung around till they posted the starting grid for the class,” he told them. “It looks like I’m going to start ninth overall, on the inside of row five. That was a little better than I expected, but there are some people in that class who are a lot faster than I am.”

“How soon before you actually race?”

“From what I can find out, it’s going to be a while, probably a couple hours. Why don’t we find some shade, take the picnic basket and have some lunch?”

“Lunch sounds like a good idea,” Donna said. “Shade sounds even better.”

By now it was warm enough, and they were familiar enough with how people were dressed, that Eunice had taken off the skirt, and was showing off her legs in the relatively short shorts of the playsuit. At one point Jeff quietly told her that her outfit really looked cute on her and that she was certainly sharper looking than Donna today.

“I think you’re right,” she replied smugly. “She looks pretty dumpy, for her.”

“I wonder if she realizes it,” he grinned, “and I’ll bet there’s a good chance she doesn’t.”

Lunch was good, if nothing special: roast beef salad sandwiches, potato salad, some celery sticks and some chips. The shade was even more appreciated; the sun was hot and bright, and even with the suntan lotion they all felt their skin turning red.

It was easy to see that Eric was enjoying himself; he enjoyed driving fast, and although he didn’t expect to do anything much in the race, he was looking forward to it. On the other hand, Donna would clearly rather have been somewhere else, doing something else, and she didn’t seem to think much of the sports cars or their drivers. She was trying to put a good face on it, although it was easy to tell what she really felt. It was probably going to be a long time before Eric would get her to a sports car race again, if ever.

The shade of the tree felt so good they stayed under it until Eric’s race was called. By now it was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was really getting hot, but Jeff, Eunice, and Donna decided to go over to the fence so they could get a better view of the race. The last race was just ending, and soon the pace car led a line of sports cars out onto the track. They were in a position where they could watch the multi-colored cars snake their way around about half of the track; in the places where the cars were out of sight they could still be heard. They watched as the pace car dove onto the pit lane, and a green flag was waved.

They couldn’t make out much detail in what was happening in the craziness of the first turn, but it seemed clear that Eric had lost a couple positions in the melee. Then the cars went out of sight, and by the time they came back into view the red car that had flown past Eric during qualifications was building a huge lead, followed by others in twos and threes. Jeff wasn’t sure, but it seemed like Eric was about tenth, in the middle of the field, but he was right behind another Triumph, nipping at him, trying to find a way around. Nothing much changed for the next two or three laps, but then when Eric came around again, the other Triumph was nowhere to be seen; it was perhaps half a minute before it came by with the front end a little crumpled and some sod hanging from the bumper.

The next time they saw Eric he was closing in on the car in front of him but was being passed by the fast red car, whose driver seemed set on lapping the field. In another two or three laps Eric was right up to the car he’d been closing in on, a square-cut older car Jeff recognized as a MG of some sort. However, Eric never got to pass the MG, since the checkered flag was waved before he could really get set up to do it. The cars slowed down for a last trip around the track, then pulled off.

In a couple minutes Eric had rejoined them. “Looks like you had a good race,” Jeff told him as Eric shut off the engine and took off his helmet. “At least you passed someone.”

“I’m not sure how much a case of passing him it was, or whether I got him nervous and he missed the corner a little,” Eric said. “But I did get past him. That was fun! I’d like to do it again.”

“Is that all you’re going to be racing today?” Donna asked.

“Yeah,” Eric sighed. “It seems like a lot of work for just a short time, but I guess it was worth it.”

“Good,” she sighed petulantly. “Now can we go home?”

Despite Donna’s wanting to leave right away, they still had things to do, like put the windshield back on the Triumph and load all their things. Along with that, they had a six-pack of Goebel long-necks, Eric’s first legal beer purchase. It wasn’t quite the celebration Eric had hoped for; his first race had gone all right, but Donna’s snippiness afterwards took a lot of the fun out of it. The best they could manage was for Eric, Jeff, and Eunice to each have a beer while they packed up. Eunice only sipped at hers while Donna stood off to one side, obviously fuming at the delay. Racing was still going on when they got on the road, but Eric’s race was the part they’d come for, anyway.

“Wow,” Eunice said as they drove away from the race track in the Nash. “I’m surprised Donna decided to ride with him in the roadster.”

“She probably wants to spend the whole trip complaining at him where we can’t hear her,” Jeff opined. “I know Donna is your friend, but in this case, better him than us.”

“I think you’re right about that,” she sighed. “She sure was being a wet blanket about the whole thing today. That’s not like Donna at all. Do you think maybe she was upset about his plans to take off and go east for a few weeks?”

“Could be,” Jeff grinned. “You know her better than I do. But I can tell you this much: if she wanted to stop him from going, getting into a snit with him isn’t the way to do it. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, after all, and that’s especially true with Eric. I’d be willing to bet that after they get back to Meridian they’re not going to be on speaking terms.”

Eunice let out a sigh. “You know, I suspect you’re right. I feel a little sorry for Donna. She was getting pretty interested in him, but I guess she’s not going to get her way. What would you like to bet that we’ll see them parked along the road someplace flagging us down so she can ride back with us?”

“Seems likely to me, and I’m not sure I want to hear her gripe and whine about it all the way back. In fact, I think it would be a good idea to stop at a gas station for a fill-up right now.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“It’ll give me a chance to look at a road map and find a different way home. After all, I have to take you to Amherst, not Meridian. That argues for going a different way anyway.”

“I may not be acting like a friend of hers to say this,” she smiled, “but that sounds like a good idea to me. I’m not sure I want to listen to her all the way to Meridian either.”

It took a little work with a map, but they found a considerably different if somewhat longer route to get back to Amherst. Since they were earlier than they’d expected, they stopped at a decent restaurant they found along the way, had a good dinner, and just enjoyed being with each other the rest of their time on the road.

It was close to sunset before they got to Amherst. “You know,” she said as they got to the edge of town. “It really wasn’t all that bad a day. The racing was fun, for something different. It’s something I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. Maybe if Eric decides to do it again, we could go up there with him.”

“It has potential,” he agreed. “So long as we leave Donna at home.”

“It’ll be interesting to see how it all comes out,” she snickered.

“Yeah, it could. But I suspect that it’s already come out. I’ll probably hear about it when Eric gets back to my house.”

“Let me know, would you?”

“Oh, I will. Unless Donna did something I really don’t expect her to do, he’ll probably be leaving tomorrow or the next day, so I’d better catch him while I can.”

“It’s going to seem strange to not have him around.”

“We’ll get along,” he grinned. “Hey, I want to say I was real proud of you today. Not only were you better dressed and better looking than Donna, you were a real good sport about it, too. She just made an ass of herself.”

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

“If her intent was to keep you around that summer, she certainly didn’t do a very good job of it,” Eunice grinned at the memory.

“Let me tell you, the two of you disappearing like that on the way home from the race was a really smart move,” Eric shook his head. “She chewed on my ear all the way back. I mean, it was bad enough when we got started, but then the wind and the noise from the car just added to her bad mood. The only reason she wanted to go with me in the first place was so she could bitch me out about everything, but she hadn’t thought it out enough to realize she was going to be stuck there for three hours. I think that when she realized that was when she really got pissed off.”

“You’d already made up your mind to go, hadn’t you?”

“Of course. That was what I’d been planning more or less ever since I got the Triumph. But at that point I had the option of maybe only being gone two or three weeks, or being gone longer. By the time we got to Meridian, I realized that Donna hadn’t given me any reasons to stay behind and a lot of reasons to have my fun elsewhere.”

“I always thought that if she’d been halfway flexible that day, things could have come out a lot differently.”

“Oh, yeah, no doubt about it. I guess I always felt that you didn’t enjoy the racing that much, but at least you approached it with an open mind and a willingness to at least try something new for the sake of your friends. If I’m right, you carried it off well. She was just dead set against it and tried to make damn sure I knew it without realizing that the whole day was something of a test for her, and she failed it. I mean, if she’d been reasonable, if she’d been supportive, I might have had reason to think differently about what I did. But she decided to bitch about it instead, and by doing it she talked me into staying gone the rest of the summer. I had no real intention of taking up with her again when we went back to school in the fall. There were things about her I liked, but I didn’t like them that much. When I dropped her off in Meridian, Donna and I were through, at least as far as I was concerned.”

“Jeff and I drove over to Meridian to see her, oh, it must have been two or three weeks after the race,” Eunice shook her head. “By then she’d realized that she’d made a major mistake, and she wasn’t very happy with herself, and I especially mean that comparing what Jeff and I had going by then. She was pretty bored, and was even wishing she was back in school, I think because she wanted to have another shot at you.”

“I got that impression when I got back later in the summer,” he nodded. “I think you telling me that was what made me decide to see if she was going to play the game by my rules. I mean, not that I wanted to get back with her, but I guess to see if I could break her as much as she’d tried to break me and failed.”

“I probably helped you with that,” she smiled. “I told her right out in front of Jeff that she should have tried being warm and cuddly and loving instead of griping and complaining. I didn’t quite come out and tell her that she should have taken you to bed. I mean, I couldn’t say that in front of Jeff, not where we were at with each other at the time, but I could sure hint about it.”

“She got the message, whether you told her or not. But then, I suppose the example of having you and Jeff in front of her sort of added to it.”

“Oh, I’m sure it did,” she smiled. “There Jeff and I were, two quiet, shy kids without any real history of romance with other people, and all of a sudden it was like a whole new life was opened to us. We had some good times that summer, but we really covered some ground, too.”

“I could see it when I got back. It was like you two weren’t the same people. A lot of the shyness was gone, and you had really opened up, especially to each other. Would you care for a drink? It’s getting time I got started on dinner.”

“I could stand both, especially since we missed lunch. Why don’t we both go out to the kitchen so we can still talk? After all, some of the things that happened that summer really made it memorable.”

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