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tracks of North Carolina and came to me a couple months back
looking for a job during the week. With the way the sprint tour was heating up,
we needed all the help we could get with JAR Racing so
I offered him a job in fabrication. Usually I never hired anyone without
personally knowing them for years or from a family recommendation, but I took a
chance on Grady.
    “I need
you to get those two cars ready go this morning.” With a nod over my shoulder,
I gestured to the two bodies next to the bay doors. Both cars were stripped
down to bars.
    “All
right,” Grady nodded and looked over the cars for a moment, “Anything else?”
    Usually my
interactions with the guys around the shop were kept professional. That was
unless it was with Tommy and Willie, two people who were not by any means
professional. I didn’t know Grady all that well so I kept it professional.
    “I think
that’ll do it for today. I need them ready before you leave.”
    “Will do,”
he replied quickly and that was the last I saw of him. He went to work and
never asked questions. Something I appreciated these days.
    I didn’t spend
much time at the shop that morning. I mainly went there to make sure the boys
had everything loaded and ready for the start of the season along with the
engines for sprint car team and cup teams.
    When my
dad arrived, I left. Since he had retired, we couldn’t be around each other for
too long before an argument broke out.
    He did ask
about Grady which I thought was strange. “Who’s the kid?”
    “He’s a
racer who needed a job. That’s all.”
    Jimi
watched him through the large windows that overlooked the twenty four thousand
square foot shop, “How well do you know him?”
    Everyone
was leery of me hiring Grady for the simple reason that our business, whether
it was JAR Racing or Riley-Simplex Racing, was family only with the exception
of close friends and people we knew. Dad and the rest of our family weren’t
sold on Grady after the mess we had when we caught Kerry stealing money from us
last fall.
    “I don’t
know him but I’m giving him a shot. That’s all he’s looking for.”
    Dad
grumbled something else and I had to leave. We didn’t need an argument today.
     
     
    When I
arrived home, I found Sway in the kitchen making dinner with Rosa, our
housekeeper, if you could even call her that. She was forty something woman who
loved to piss me off.
    Sound
familiar?
    Yeah,
pretty much like everyone else in my family so she was perfect. Rosa wasn’t
Mexican and didn’t speak Spanish but she liked to make people think she could.
She was always rambling off something she said was Spanish but I knew a little
Spanish and she wasn’t speaking that language. She was speaking bullshit. And
it’s not like her Caucasian appearance didn’t give her away but she still acted
like she was Mexican. The thing with Rosa was that she did absolutely nothing
around our house but I still found myself writing her checks each week. Who in
the hell knew why. It mostly had to do with the fact that everyone in our
family loved her, aside from me of course.
    Sway
barely noticed me as the television in the family room off the kitchen held
most of her attention. I found my attention diverted as well when I saw the
segment on the race in Barberville.
    She turned
up the volume when they interviewed our wide-eyed son.
    “Axel
Riley, you’re the kid that has taken a legend’s place this year. Are you
ready?”
    “To race
here, in his car, is unbelievable to me.” Axel smiled my same smile and the one
I knew very well. He was excited, “I just hope I don’t let him down.”
    “Does Jimi
help you?” the reporter pushed the microphone back in his face.
    “He helps
a ton. I couldn’t do it without him, my dad and Tommy, all of them.”
    “As a
rookie, what are your goals for this year as a rookie?”
    Axel
shifted his weight, his hands fumbling with the visor of his helmet. He looked
down from the view of the camera. “My