The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (28 page)

“Give me that!”

“No!” Axel yelled at me.

My adorable little spaz was actually yelling at me. It
never failed that any time we were at the track Axel stole parts from the
hauler. Here I was nine months pregnant, extremely uncomfortable, and hot and
running around after my almost 2-year old son. If you have never waddled your
way around the pits of a dirt track chasing a toddler, you’re not missing much.

“Axel, please give that wrench to mommy.”

He shook his head. “No—mine,” he hugged it to his chest
tightly. “Mine!”

I’m not sure where he learned the word mine, but I hated
it. Everything was either “no” or “mine”.

I’d been cramping all day, which wasn’t unusual for this
late in my pregnancy but when I had to stop and steady myself against Justin’s
sprint car, I began to wonder if this was going to progress to labor here
shortly. Thinking this, I panicked.

If you remember my last labor, I was not at all calm. In
fact, I was the exact opposite.

Alley found me after the heat races, holding her swollen
stomach. “Christ this hurts.”

“Walking?”

“No, these cramps,”

“You’re cramping too?”

“What?” Jimi asked as he walked past, his steps halting.
His eyes did a once over on the two of us. “Did you just say you’re both cramping?”
he didn’t wait for us to answer. “Listen, you can’t have these babies tonight.
You
just
can’t.”

“That’s not really within our control, Jimi.” Alley
replied and sat down in a chair Emma had gotten for her.

Just then, Lane came running past with a corn dog and
Axel running after him.

He stopped in front of us. “I don’t understand, why he
always take my food?”

“He likes you.” I told him ruffling his mess of honey
hair and then clutching my side.

“I like him too but I not steal him food.”

“His food,” I corrected him. “You don’t steal
his
food.”

Lane sighed rolling his eyes and handed his corn dog over
to Axel. “That’s what I said.”

Axel, bright eyed he now had food, sat down in the dirt
to eat his battered lips and assholes as Jameson called it.

Alley and I wondered if tonight another set of Riley kids
would be added to our family. This went on through most of the heat races.
Alley found out she was having another boy and well our little one refused to
let us in on the sex. Every time we tried to see on the ultrasound, the baby
covered up. We had a mystery baby.

After the feature events everyone was loading up when I
really started to feel like I was in labor, on top of that, my water broke.

At that point, I was calm. It was short lived but I was
calm.

I waddled my fat ass inside Jimi’s hauler while he talked
with Cody Bowman about next week’s race in Cottage Grove.

Cursing to myself when a contraction hit, I stumbled in
pain and slammed my knee into a spare torsion bar lying on the floor.

“Sway,” Jimi’s eyes shot into the distance when he heard
my scream. “is that you?”

“Yes it’s me. Who else would it be?”

“I don’t know.” Jimi replied with a shrug. Cody excused
himself and walked out the side door. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m in labor.” I blurted out steadying myself against
the car.

“You’re what?” Jimi shot up from his chair so quickly he
smacked his head on the rear end hanging on the sidewall of his hauler. “You
can’t be serious! Alley and Emma just left with the car. She’s in labor.”

Where in the hell was I when that happened?

Oh yeah, I was in the bathroom feeling like shit.

When I went into labor with Axel, it wasn’t quick by any
means, but I was also early. With this child, the kid took its sweet time
coming out of me. I was a week late, which was why Jameson wasn’t with me. We
thought for sure the baby would hold off another week since my last exam showed
no movement. Having hovered like a queen bee my entire pregnancy, it was rare
that he wasn’t with me. But as luck would have it, this was the last race
before the Nextel Cup Chase began and he couldn’t be with me and needed me to
be with his sprint car team.

All that being said, my labor moved quickly. So quickly,
I couldn’t make it to the hospital. In turn, I was stuck here at a dirt track with
Jimi, Justin, Tommy, Tyler, and Ami. Emma and Alley were at the hospital.

“Oh my god!” Tommy covered his eyes. “I can’t watch
this.”

He jetted out of the hauler when a few track safety
officials made their way inside the hauler.

“Men are so retarded.” Ami rolled her eyes. “Just breathe
Sway, everything will be fine.” She looked over her shoulder at Justin. “Did
you call Jameson?”

“Yeah,” he held the phone up. He too looked a little
nervous as well and was ready to jet any second. “He’s on the phone.”

I quickly grabbed it from him.

“Jameson?”

Ami motioned to Axel walking around collecting wrenches
and shocks for his collection. “I’ll take care of him.” She mouthed and picked
him up.

“Yeah honey, it’s me.” Jameson breathed. “Are you okay?”

“No, fuck no!” I yelled. “I’m in labor at a goddamn dirt
track. What about that is okay?”

“I’m on a plane right now. I’ll be there as soon as I
can.”

I sighed knowing he was coming from Richmond. There was
no way he’d make it, not with these cramps. “How long?”

“How long what?”

“How long before you’re here?”

“A few hours,”

I screamed out in pain as another contraction hit me
hard, “You’re not going to make it in time.”

Jameson groaned. “Put my fucking dad on the phone!”

I handed the phone to Jimi, who by now was looking a
little green. I went back to my pain.

“Listen,” I could hear Jameson’s voice yelling at his
dad. “no looking. I mean it,
no
looking.”

Jimi looked offended. “It’s not like I would want to
check out my daughter in-law’s track layout, okay?” He sighed. “I have no
desire to even see this shit. You should be here, not me. I’m not all right
with this Jameson. I’m just not. Get your ass here, right now!”

Track layout?
I started giggling that he called my
crankcase a track layout.

I heard Jameson again. “Well good. Keep it that way.” He
let out a frustrated sigh. “Now keep her calm. I’m on my way.”

Ten minutes passed and I wasn’t sure why they couldn’t
just transport me to the hospital. This seemed ridiculous but it might have had
something to do with the fact that every time they tried to move me from my
spot on the floor of Jimi’s hauler, I screamed at them and told them to leave
me alone. I kicked everyone out except for Jimi.

Jimi looked incredibly nervous and completely
uncomfortable with the entire situation.

“This is horrible.” He voiced his completely
uncomfortable with this entire situation.

I think I stressed this before, but childbirth is
disgusting. Sure, it’s beautiful, the beginning of life and all. But mostly,
it’s disgusting. I was almost positive Jimi felt the same.

Jameson, in not so many words told his dad he’d kill him
if anything happened to me. Scaring Jimi, the only one here to help me, just
didn’t seem like a good idea to me. I could be wrong.

So there I was, legs spread, a tarp covering my
crankcase, a Hans device supporting my neck (it was all we had in the hauler),
each one of my legs were propped up on the rear tires of Jimi’s car while two
safety officials assessed the situation.

“Mrs. Riley, we need to transport you but it seems it’s
progressing quickly. I think it’s best that we just stay here.”

I held up my hand. “Two things you need to know.” I told
the man and woman safety official. “I do not want the word
crowning
said. And second
...
well I don’t know
what the second thing will be
...
” I
pointed at them. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Yes Ma’am, we do.”

“This sucks.” Jimi said pacing the hauler biting his
fingernails. “Why do I have to be in here? Why can’t Ami?”

“She’s taking care of Axel.”

“I can do that, why can’t I do that?”

“The last time you were alone with Axel
...
you fed him dog biscuits.”

“So
...
those things
were delicious.” He sat down next to me running his hands through his black
hair and tugging. “I can’t do this. I really
can’t
. You don’t seem to
understand that.”

“You’ll be fine. Just calm down.” I told him. He was
really starting to freak even me out. “You have to stop stressing me out.”

“I might not make it.” he shoved a wet rag at me
haphazardly only partially paying attention.

“Sit down and stop being a pussy.” I ordered.

“If I see blood, I may pass out. Where’s that no good
husband of yours?” he once again glanced out the hauler once again where that
Justin and Tyler were standing guard outside to insure no one could come
inside. “I can’t do this.”

The track official checked me one last time and said I
needed to push because I was completely effaced. As it was, I had my legs
clamped again hoping Jameson magically made it across the United States in the
last few minutes.

“Where the fuck is Ami?” Jimi asked again when they moved
to get everything ready for me to push. “She needs to get her ass in here.”

Tuning him out, I didn’t like the way they said effacing
or dilating. Along with the word crowning, those words alone were enough to
send me into a panic attack.

Nothing changed from the time I progressed from a seven
to a ten. Jimi was still freaking out and asking the medical staff if he could
have an epidural.

“We don’t have the equipment for that sort of thing.”

“Well that’s stupid.” Jimi balked. “What the fuck are you
guys good for anyway?”

“Sir,” the woman official looked up at him. “We are track
safety officials, not a hospital or even an obstetrician.”

“Do you even know what you’re doing then?”

The man official looked up at Jimi. “I think we know more
than you do.”

“I highly doubt that. If you did, you’d have an epidural
on hand or even adrenaline.”

Jimi and the official continued to argue as I tried to
push this kid out in the race car hauler surrounded by nothing sanitary. It
wasn’t lost on me or Jimi that we should have gone to the hospital but no, I
decided to stay put.

I screamed, as did Jimi and Tommy, who had accidentally
walked in when the baby started to come out.

“Looks like it’s a girl!” the official said with a smile.

When she came out, the official handed her to him as she
looked up at Jimi, his panicked expression melting to adoration.

There in the midst of the dirt and methanol filling the
crisp fall night, another Riley was added.

“She’s beautiful.” Jimi said handing her to me, I laughed
that she was wrapped in his driving suit.

“Jimi,” I refused to look at him, knowing damn well, what
he did. “Please tell me you at least have underwear on.”

“Yeah,” He chucked looking toward the baby. “I decided
since I didn’t want to see your track layout you wouldn’t want to see my gear
shift.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind Jameson and Spencer are your
sons.”

I took one look at my daughter and started bawling. She
looked identical to me but I saw so much of my mom and Charlie in her as well
as Jameson. She had his exact lips and hair color.

“What’s her name?” Jimi asked. My eyes rimmed with tears
smiled.

“Jameson wanted to name her Arie Marie.”

“What?”

“Arie. Pronounced like R-re.”

“What’s with you two and naming your kids strange names?”

“You’re one to talk there smartass. You named Jameson
after whiskey.”

“I have two with normal names.” He defended still staring
at Arie.

“Yeah, I always wondered how that happened.”

He laughed handing Arie to me.

“Nancy was sleeping when they came around with the birth
certificate. I wrote the first name that came to mind.”

“Whiskey huh?”

“Hey, it got me through the birth of him.”

“So you saw him born?”

“No, hell no
...
I’ve
never seen a kid born
...
until
today.”

“So this was your first?”

“Yep,” His hand rose to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
“And I can’t say I want to see it again. That was horrible. I just may have
nightmares. All that blood and screaming and blood,” He shivered. “I need some
air.”

Everything moved quickly once she was born and we needed to
get to the hospital so Jimi, of course, drove.

Arie was tiny but had a lot of attitude. She already had
the Riley scowl down when we made it to the hospital and the nurses tried to
bath her. I couldn’t stop smiling that I had a daughter now. The only thing
that marred my happiness was the fact that her father wasn’t there to see her
birth, or right now while she was being cleaned, measured and weighed.

Ami, who had kindly kept an eye on Axel during the labor
and birth, came in holding him on her hip. When Axel came in, he looked at me
with wide happy eyes and then when he spotted the baby in my arms that wasn’t
him
...
he wasn’t thrilled.

Neither was Jameson when he finally arrived.

He rushed through the door to the room, “Did I miss it?”
His eyes, just like his son’s, caught sight of the baby in my arms. “Is that
...
?” he rushed to my side peeking down at
her.

“Daddy, meet your daughter
...
Arie.”

Jameson didn’t say anything more. With a smirk I knew
well, he climbed in the bed with his family and wrapped his all three of us.

After a few minutes of gazing at her, he whispered
against my forehead. “She’s beautiful honey
...
just
like her mother.”

Once again, we were lost in our tiny bubble of
perfection. For a few hours at least, until Spencer and Jimi came walking
inside holding the other little Riley that was added to the family tonight.
Alley was lucky enough to have him, with drugs, in the hospital, although she
did have Lane, at a dirt track, in the back of Jameson’s hauler.