White Lightning by Kent Wright

Author:Kent Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466875760
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

IN THE “PITS”

It was threatening to get dark on them before they could make much progress on the car. They spent most of the few remaining daylight hours working on the front end, trying to get it straightened out enough to be able to drive the car home. None of them had money for a wrecker, and Grandpa would certainly see them if they had the Ford towed in.

The left front was a mess. The tie rods were bent badly, along with the rim that was holding the flat tire. The front fender was smashed up tight against the wheel.

It was not a pretty sight.

The three of them took turns with the hammer, beating the fender outward until it was no longer touching the tire. They removed the bent rim and disassembled the tie rods. Some kind soul loaned them a sledgehammer and they used it to try to straighten the tie rods out enough so they could at least limp home with the car. Then they had to reassemble them.

Finally, with darkness falling all around them and lightning bugs long since out, they were finished doing what they could do. But it was a long, slow, sorrowful ride back to the barn shop.

They stopped in the middle of the ford across New Canaan Creek, pulled off their shoes and rolled up their pants legs, and used the cold mountain water to wash the dust from the car. That helped her looks but not the way she drove.

Jodell could hear the painful groaning from the left front as he fought to keep the steering wheel straight and the car heading forward in some semblance of a straight line. The spare tire was completely worn out by the time they got home. It wobbled horribly the entire way and the asphalt simply chewed it up.

It was too late then to try to do more on the car, and they would have to find parts on Monday anyway. Jodell could only hope his grandfather didn’t get curious and come give the car a good look. He would notice the crumpled fender and used-up tire right off.

The newspaper on Monday morning had an article about the race and carried a set of small photos. One showed the winner, the smiling Johnson boy, with the checkered flag held behind his head, standing there, beaming, beside his race car. The second showed one of the wrecked cars. The caption beneath the picture read, “Local boy has bad day as driver Bob Lee wrecks his car on last lap of yesterday’s big race.”

Joe tracked him down in the upper hayfield to show him a copy. Jodell’s stomach turned over when he saw him coming, the newspaper in hand.

“Well, you’re famous now, Mr. Bob Lee,” Joe said, then took a seat on the front tractor wheel while Jodell read the story and checked out the photo.

The picture clearly showed the damaged front end of the Ford, and there was no problem reading the name in shoe polish that Bubba had scripted across the roof above the door.

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