with you again. If you don’t want to see me, I’ll understand.
Love,
Mom
Tim lingered on the top step and read the letter again. Then he sat down on the porch swing and reread it. No matter how scrawled the writing was, it was still from his mother. No matter how much she had done to hurt him, this was still the one he had looked for in crowds and at races all these years.
He flipped the envelope over and saw the postmark on the front that said, Aiken, SC .
Not a bad name for the way she feels, he thought. Or me. Why wouldn’t she have left a phone number? Unless she was afraid somebody would find this and track her down. . . .
A car passed and he glanced at it. The phone call on his cell, the woman who said she was his mom—that couldn’t have been his real mother, could it? She wasn’t trying to make it up to him by destroying the Devalon garage, was she?
He shook the thought away and took the rest of the mail inside. He went to Mrs. Maxwell’s desk and found her calendar open and a star beside the next Sunday. It said, Tim at Talladega .
He wondered what he would do if given the choice between running away with his real mother or staying with the Maxwells. They weren’t perfect, but they cared. They took him away from Tyson and Vera. But no matter how many good things they did, they weren’t his own flesh and blood.
He put the mail on the desk and went to his room.
Chapter 20
Onto the Track
JAMIE’S DAD QUALIFIED the #14 car in ninth position for the race. Devalon was behind him in the 15th spot and not too happy about it. Her dad had repeatedly tried to talk with Devalon before the race and had even tried to get a message to him through Devalon’s teammate, but it was no use.
At the chapel service before the race, the chaplain continued what he called his Chase Series about people in the Bible God had used to do great things. At New Hampshire he had talked about Jonah, at Dover he went over Noah’s life, and at Kansas he highlighted Abraham.
“All of these people had messed up their lives terribly, but God looked at their faith in him. For example, it says that ‘even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping.’ Nowthis wasn’t blind hope that some people have—like I hope I’m going to get skinny even though I’m eating four double cheeseburgers and a large french fry. God had told Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, and even though he and his wife were old, he believed what God had told him. He believed the words God had spoken to him, and he wouldn’t back down.”
Jamie thought more about that as the race was about to begin. How much did she believe God was guiding her? How much did she want to just control things by herself? If God was giving the green flag to racing, would he just plop her into a car, or would she have to work on it as hard, if not harder?
That was going through her mind when the call came: “Gentlemen, start your engines.” They’ll have to change that gentlemen thing in a couple of years when I’m racing , she thought. She looked at her watch—2:12 p.m.
The green flag dropped at the speedway, and the field shot through the first turn. She adjusted her headset to listen to her dad and tuned in the announcers by mistake.
“. . . and there is some increasing animosity between the #13 and #14 teams of Butch Devalon and Dale Maxwell,” the announcer said. “We’ll watch how the race heats up to see if the conflict spills onto thetrack, but there was a fire this week at the Devalon garage that was deliberately set, and Butch blames a young man who lives with Maxwell and his family.”
“Something tells me that’s not the only thing those two are fighting over,” a commentator said. “They’re battling it out for the play-offs of NASCAR and neither one of them wants to lose.”
“This, of course, would be Butch Devalon’s third cup championship. Dale Maxwell has never been—”
“Oh, did you see that?”
Love,
Mom
Tim lingered on the top step and read the letter again. Then he sat down on the porch swing and reread it. No matter how scrawled the writing was, it was still from his mother. No matter how much she had done to hurt him, this was still the one he had looked for in crowds and at races all these years.
He flipped the envelope over and saw the postmark on the front that said, Aiken, SC .
Not a bad name for the way she feels, he thought. Or me. Why wouldn’t she have left a phone number? Unless she was afraid somebody would find this and track her down. . . .
A car passed and he glanced at it. The phone call on his cell, the woman who said she was his mom—that couldn’t have been his real mother, could it? She wasn’t trying to make it up to him by destroying the Devalon garage, was she?
He shook the thought away and took the rest of the mail inside. He went to Mrs. Maxwell’s desk and found her calendar open and a star beside the next Sunday. It said, Tim at Talladega .
He wondered what he would do if given the choice between running away with his real mother or staying with the Maxwells. They weren’t perfect, but they cared. They took him away from Tyson and Vera. But no matter how many good things they did, they weren’t his own flesh and blood.
He put the mail on the desk and went to his room.
Chapter 20
Onto the Track
JAMIE’S DAD QUALIFIED the #14 car in ninth position for the race. Devalon was behind him in the 15th spot and not too happy about it. Her dad had repeatedly tried to talk with Devalon before the race and had even tried to get a message to him through Devalon’s teammate, but it was no use.
At the chapel service before the race, the chaplain continued what he called his Chase Series about people in the Bible God had used to do great things. At New Hampshire he had talked about Jonah, at Dover he went over Noah’s life, and at Kansas he highlighted Abraham.
“All of these people had messed up their lives terribly, but God looked at their faith in him. For example, it says that ‘even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping.’ Nowthis wasn’t blind hope that some people have—like I hope I’m going to get skinny even though I’m eating four double cheeseburgers and a large french fry. God had told Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, and even though he and his wife were old, he believed what God had told him. He believed the words God had spoken to him, and he wouldn’t back down.”
Jamie thought more about that as the race was about to begin. How much did she believe God was guiding her? How much did she want to just control things by herself? If God was giving the green flag to racing, would he just plop her into a car, or would she have to work on it as hard, if not harder?
That was going through her mind when the call came: “Gentlemen, start your engines.” They’ll have to change that gentlemen thing in a couple of years when I’m racing , she thought. She looked at her watch—2:12 p.m.
The green flag dropped at the speedway, and the field shot through the first turn. She adjusted her headset to listen to her dad and tuned in the announcers by mistake.
“. . . and there is some increasing animosity between the #13 and #14 teams of Butch Devalon and Dale Maxwell,” the announcer said. “We’ll watch how the race heats up to see if the conflict spills onto thetrack, but there was a fire this week at the Devalon garage that was deliberately set, and Butch blames a young man who lives with Maxwell and his family.”
“Something tells me that’s not the only thing those two are fighting over,” a commentator said. “They’re battling it out for the play-offs of NASCAR and neither one of them wants to lose.”
“This, of course, would be Butch Devalon’s third cup championship. Dale Maxwell has never been—”
“Oh, did you see that?”
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