(Nigel’s view)

"I would like to turn your attention to the red BMW in the burnout box, just two months ago, the driver, Darren Reynolds, was involved in a horrific crash on the top end of this track. This is his first time back, in what seems to be a re-creation of the car that was crashed. Let’s give him a round of applause, for being ok and returning to race."

 

As the track announcer told of Darren’s accomplishment. The hordes of people in the grandstands went nuts, racers and spectators. Darren got a standing ovation as he approached the start line.

It was an intense two months. Darren, for the most part, was fine. He went back to work as planned, getting caught up on what he missed the week before. I, on the other hand, stayed busy at my shop. I eventually did hire a mechanic so we could get more work done.

Home life always seems to get better. A good example is, one night when I got home from work, the house was dark except for two candles burning on the table. Darren was standing by the entry way to the kitchen. Soft music coming from the living room brought me closer to Dar.

 

"What's the occasion bud?"

 

"Do I need an occasion? I just got off early and wanted to surprise you with a nice dinner and a relaxing movie."

 

"This is too cool but what's for dinner,” I ask.

 

“Mac-n-cheese and hot dogs?”

 

"Say again? I thought you said nice dinner." I said that just to tease Darren.

 

"I work my fingers to the manicure for you, and you don't want my mac-n-cheese?"

 

"Nah. I think we can do better. What's the movie?"

 

"Speed"

 

"Again?"

 

"Gotcha Nige! Ok, we’re having prime rib, with the extras. And the movie is AI." ‘Interesting selection,’ I think to myself.  

 

As I go upstairs to clean up and change, Darren transformed the kitchen into something fancy. It will be a night to remember, forever.

It seems that we were constantly working on his car, every weekend, swapping parts, modifying things, adding more safety features like a roll cage, better fuel system, a stronger differential. It looks like this car is going to be transformed into something rarely seen-a drag race car. It took about a month and a half, but we got it completed. After a few test runs by the shop, it was quickly becoming obvious that this was nothing like the other car, this is more aggressive, more powerful, even with the bottle turned off. This thing is going to be an animal at the track, if he can keep it straight.

One day, out of the blue, Molly calls. Wondering what we were doing for the upcoming weekend. I told her we had nothing planned. She asks me if we would be interested in going to the city for the weekend and having some fun for a change. I told her to go ahead and plan on it, I’d drag Darren, kicking and screaming if I have to. Actually, I'd prefer him screaming a bit.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

(Darren’s view)

Wow! What a long strange trip it's been. Our anniversary is coming up quick. I can't believe it's been a year since my life was turned totally around. A freak car problem led me to my new life, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

In the last year, I've done more than I have in all my life, I started drag racing. That led to the destruction of my first car, but with the new one, I've become a regular at the track. I still feel like the odd duck racing a BMW against a field of Detroit’s finest. I get my usual ribbing from the racers, but they get as good as they give. Nigel told me about my maiden voyage with the new car. Seems the track announcer was making a point of welcoming me back to racing there. My driving got better, the car was great with Nige making improvements as they were warranted. Sad to say though, her street days are numbered as I have a few ideas that wouldn't make it real streetable. Oh well.

 

**************************************

A few months ago, Nigel asks me if I'm interested in going to the city for the weekend, with Molly and her fiancée. I figured why not. It was great. We had fun, between a few clubs, restaurants, and a movie at the IMAX theatre there. We actually danced too! I never thought I had it in me to even attempt it, and here we are, in a public place, dancing with each other. It seems Molly did her homework for this weekend, as I found out later. Seems she went out of her way finding places where we could be ourselves. I gave her a huge hug and a peck on the cheek for the effort once we got back. Then, it was my turn to repay Nige for going and having a great time.

Work was giving me fits once in a while, not the job itself but rather, the people. Seems my home life somehow got out there, and a couple people have voiced their opinion. I just tell them to mind their own business and get back to whatever they were doing. I told my boss what was going on, and how my life is going. He was happy for me. I even got some authority at work. My job always has some fun in it. Of course, it can't smell like roses all the time, eventually, you gotta play in the manure and get your hands dirty.

One shining Saturday morning, Nigel tells me to get up and get something on, preferably something that can get a bit dirty, as he had plans for the day for us. He wouldn't mention where we're going, but he said I'd get a kick out of it. I figured, 'what the hell.’ After I got cleaned up and dressed, I made my way to the kitchen where I saw Nige loading the cooler for the day, a lot of bottled water and some sodas along with a few munchies.

 

"Hey Dar, could you grab the camera? We're going to need it later."

 

"Okie dokie, dude"

 

With that, I blew him a kiss and then dug the camera out of the cupboard.

We ended up taking his truck to the mystery destination. What a drive that was, all backroads and a lot of interesting sights, and neat cars for sale by the road. I almost begged Nige to stop, after passing one that I could not remember seeing before. It was too off the wall to pass up. It ended up being a Pontiac Fiero. We did stop to look at it. It's a mid-engine car, with this one being a V-6, 5 speed car. We took the info off the “For Sale” sign and proceeded on our journey to the unknown destination.

What I seen when we got there was a field filled with pickup trucks. Yeah, I dislike country music, but that lyric seemed to stick. There were trucks all over the place with trailers with these huge trucks on them.

 

I ask Nige, "What is going on here?"

 

"Mud run, bud. I thought you'd like some cheap entertainment today."

 

"Aw you bring me on a date, to a mud run. I might have to toss you in there."

 

"Heh, good luck trying. I wanted to show you some stuff here, totally different racing."

 

"Ok, cool. Where's the action taking place?"

 

"See that dark spot about 100 yards long over there," Nigel asked as he pointed to an open area, “That’s the pit and they got it set up for drags today, but they can dig it so the mud can be 4 feet deep too."

 

"Four feet deep? Nothing could get through that."

 

"Oh, you would be surprised, there having that run tomorrow, then I can show ya. But today, there will be some intense trucks here, and a few contraptions that defy description." Contraptions? Cool.

 

"Ok, let me be the judge of that"

With that, we looked around the pits to check the trucks out. There was some wild stuff there, tires that were almost as tall as I am, and engines that looked like they belonged in some of the drag cars at the race track. Today was going to be an eye opener. A couple hours passed as we wandered around the trucks, then we made our way to the stands, set up by the track, to wait for the action to start.

After a while, the announcer called the first class to the staging area. That ended up being the scoop class, or paddles. These were the most powerful machines there, over 1000 horsepower each, easy. A couple of them were pushing 2500 hp. Most were 4 wheel drive dragsters. Some were front engine, some, rear engine. The mud pit ended up being 100 feet long. I was told that some of these cars can do this in less than 2 seconds. I just had one word--bullshit!

Well, my question was going to be answered in a minute as the first car fired up. This one had more evil to it than most of the cars at the dragstrip. As it approached the start line, the driver throttled it a couple time to clean it out, then pulled in the beams to start his run. The flagman waved him to start when he was ready, then all hell broke loose as this thing launched. I swear I could feel the earth move, and after his pass, the announcer called the time out, 1.97 seconds. The crowd went nuts. The rest of that class went pretty much along the same line, but not hitting the sub 2 sec mark.

As the day progressed, they ran the rest of the classes, (cut tires, those are highly modified off road tires, DOT class, those use off the shelf off-road tires with no modifications) with some of the vehicles getting nearly out of control, going sideways, on two wheels, getting a couple feet of air under all the tires as it leaves the pit, and the like, but the drivers rarely ever lift off the throttle. Talk about balls of steel.

We got back to the truck for our journey home, and I ask Nige, "We coming back tomorrow?"

 

"Well, I suppose, ought to show you what some of these can do with deep mud."

 

"You better make good on it too, or I'm cutting you off." Nige let a chuckle out and we got in the truck to head home. About half way back, I spotted the Fiero again, thinking 'that could be something.’ Once we got home, we took turns in the shower. I actually got mud on me, somehow. After that, I grabbed some stuff and whipped up a little dinner while Nige was cleaning up.

After dinner and a movie, it was time to hit the sack, and get ready for Sunday at the mud hole.

 

****************************************

A good night's sleep does a body good. After a pit stop, I staggered my way to the kitchen, dug out a bowl, and some Choco-Pebbles, to the fridge for the milk, then sat down and killed two bowls of the cereal. Yeah, I'm a pig. About that time, Nige walks in and says, "Leave any for me, ya hog?"

 

I shook the box a bit, and found ample for my dazed mate.

 

"Plenty. When are we taking off?"

 

"A couple hours anyway, take your time." With that, I got up, putting my empty bowl in the sink and kissed Nige's cheek on my way to the couch.

"Wake up jackass!"

 

Well, isn't that a fine how do you do?

 

"Dang Nige, a kiss would suffice to wake me up, but no, you gotta call me a jackass."

 

I think the half-asleep, kinda-pissed boyfriend I wanted to portray was working.

 

"I'm sorry bud, you wanna get ready?"

 

With that, I got up and kissed his nose, and said "Gotcha" and went to change for the day. I heard him mumble something, but I didn't quite get it.

Once we got to the mud factory again, I noticed that the mud pit was exactly that, a pit. It was four feet deep in places, deep enough to swallow most anything on wheels. The infield was filling with various mud rigs, along with several mud draggers from yesterday. The mud then, was only a foot or so deep, today it’s totally different.

We strolled through the pits again, taking in the different types of rigs competing today, some look as if they just drove in from the highway, to some that defy description. It seems that this bog was classed similar to yesterday’s race, by tire size. Smaller first, then the big tires go through, if they can.

Things finally got rolling as the more sedate trucks started to gather at the staging area, and then finally got under way. This mud hole was 100 feet long, and most of the trucks were only getting about halfway, at best, further as the classes went up. When they finally called the 44 inch class, the most outlandish of the trucks came up. Most sounded wicked powerful, but none made it all the way, getting stopped about 3/4 through the hole, totally burying their tires.

The last to go, was this Jeep Scrambler that we saw run yesterday. This isn't exactly a subtle machine, but won most of his classes. When he got the green flag, the throttle got floorboarded and it literally skipped across the entire mud pit, just like tossing the perfect rock across a pond, coming across with a small amount of mud on it on the other side. Everyone was dumbfounded. This Jeep ran on race gas, not alcohol as some do, and no other kinds of power adders, like nitrous oxide, or supercharged, just the engine. And it skipped across a mud pit that buried everyone that went in it. That was the talk of the rest of the day.

Once back in the truck, we talked about what went on and how things got done and how that damn jeep skipped across that hole. After passing that Fiero for the third time in two days, Nige asks me if I wanted to do a street toy.

 

"I've been thinking of something totally out of the ordinary."

 

"I've heard of people putting a V8 in the back of those. It would be fun to try."

Ok, for those who don't know what a Fiero is, it's a smaller sports car made by Pontiac in the mid to late 80's. It's a mid-engine car.

Once home, I decided to research it a little more, see what was happening with them and what was available. Surprised was more my reaction when I seen what was possible with those little cars. I think I'll have to get me another money pit, as if I needed another one.

A few days later, I decided to go for a drive with the BMW, it has been a while. Just traipsing around, going nowhere particular. I came upon a familiar road when a thought struck me. I flipped a switch, and the car sputtered and died, coasting to a memorable spot on the side of the road.

I flipped my cell phone open, and dialed a certain number.

 

"Hello"

 

"Hi hon, you wouldn't believe what happened."

 

"With you, it's hard to tell, try me."

 

"The car died."

 

"Ok, where are you?"

 

"Let’s see, I'm in the sticks."

 

"Can you give me something more specific please? It's all sticks out here."

 

"Ok. I'm on highway 20, about 15 miles from town."

 

"Ok, I'll get the flatbed and be there shortly."

 

"Thanks bud, I'll owe ya."

 

"We'll settle payment arrangements later."

 

"Great! See you in a while." I hung up and waited.

This was no plan. It was a spur of the moment thing. You see, the spot I pulled over at, was the spot my first BMW died at, one year ago to the day, and where Nigel and I first laid eyes on each other. The memories came flooding back, what was I going to do, where was I going to go. All those questions were answered that week, and then some. We had our ups and downs over the last year, but nothing we couldn't get past. The last year, has been the best of my life. I have someone to share my life with, and someone to share his with me. It has been most excellent.

I was tearing up something fierce, when Nigel pulls up behind me, and turns his emergency lights on. I get out of the car, practically crying, when Nige comes to me wondering what happened. I jump in his arms, giving him the tightest hug I could manage.

 

"Happy Anniversary, honey, I love you," I whispered into his ear. Nigel seemed slightly surprised by my words.

 

"I love you too, very much. Did you plan this?"

 

"Not really, it just happened."

 

"What's wrong with the car?"

 

"Oh, nothing" With that, he gave me a tight hug.

 

"Will miracles never cease, this is perfect. Let me get us home, and celebrate properly." We got my car loaded up, and home, we went.

What a long strange, wondrous trip it's been.

 

 

 

THE END…for now

 

*****************************************************

 

 

I would like to thank everyone who has read this, whether you commented or not. This has been a special trip for me, as this is my first story ever. I never thought I could pull it off.

Thanks to the folks who have given this story the space to be seen, the people in the background making the updates, and to my editor, Scribbler, for making most of this readable, and for letting me share his site.

This story isn't dead. It's just going on vacation while I work on other stories that have taken a back burner while I worked on this one.  

I thank you for your support!

Lugnutz