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Freeriding	By : DodgeSuperBee Category: +1 through F > Cars Views: 1717 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Cars, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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April 1980
Curtis rushed along the highway that led to his house, his mind conscious of the way that each milepost he passed brought him closer to his girlfriend. After many consecutive weeks away on the semi-pro national truck racing circuit and ample time to contemplate his future, he had so much to tell her about his plans for their life together.
Inside the bedroom of the large ranch home she shared with Curtis, Rachel had retrieved her suitcase from the closet, opening it for the first time since she’d moved in with him two years ago. She had spent the last hour filling it with her personal possessions, hoping to leave him no hurtful memories of her betrayal or even of her existence. As the sedan zippered the luggage, she could detect slight movements in her underside as the child within responded to her motion.
“I’m home!” announced her lover cheerfully, bursting into their sleeping room and unloading his own suitcases from his bed. Clutching his girlfriend’s tires between his own, he spun her around breathlessly, then slowed as he caught her look of unease.
“Oh, right. The little one might not like getting dizzy,” he joked, misreading her concern. “It feels so good to be home, and look how nice you’ve kept the place. Rachel, I’ve made a big decision and I know it was the right thing. I turned down the Bumper Save guys. I want to be here with you instead.” He was perplexed when Rachel scooted from his embrace and fixed her gaze out the window, with nary a word of congratulation.
“Honey, I know it’d be fun to follow me on the circuit and live the good life like we always talked about, but we both have to do what’s right for our child. It’d be pretty hard to live out of a trailer with a newborn in our care. I’m happy with my decision, and Bumper Save’s already tagged the next guy in line for the sponsorship. He has eight kids to feed so this will help him out big time.”
“You gave up your only chance to turn pro,” said Rachel quietly, knowing her lover couldn’t take back his decision now that the contracts had been signed by the runner-up instead of the star. “You wanted this so badly; it was your dream until I got pregnant. Are you sure you’ll be content racing at the Rustbucket for several more years?”
“I’ll be happy there and I’ll be happier yet staying with you. You’re everything to me! I know you saw my race on television, but did they mention I won a good sum of money when I qualified for the pros? It’ll be enough for us to get by if I supplement it with a job on the side, and when our baby’s old enough I’ll train for the professional circuit again.” He and Rachel had always agreed they’d get married and have a single child together, though they hadn’t planned to do either until he’d made it to the big leagues. Curtis had found it hard to postpone his dream at the expense of his growing family, but before he’d left for home he’d done something for himself to salvage his vision for his future. A quick visit to his doctor had ensured his shift from racing to fatherhood would not be permanent. He would only be sidelined in child-rearing for so long, at least until his son was old enough to travel.
Curtis was yearning to pull the engagement ring from his bed and slip it on Rachel’s antenna, but something was clearly agitating her, something she was reluctant to voice. He pressed a tire against her side, feeling for the first time their child squirm against his mother’s womb.
“He’s moving around so much for such a little guy,” cooed the pickup, and Rachel couldn’t stand the unbearable weight of her secret a moment longer.
Staring at the floor, she said quietly, “He’s not so little. I’m five months along.”
Curtis continued to smile, then his face lit up even more. “That’s just great, honey! We’ll be holding our baby a month earlier than you thought! So it was back in early December then…” His mind flashed back to the week after New Year’s, when he’d come home for a brief visit and they’d always assumed they’d conceived. So if that hadn’t been the magical time, then…
A terrible realization hit Curtis like an icy carwash. “But I wasn’t home in December, not even overnight. I was in Kentucky at the Speedway and…” He felt a cold and clammy sweat overcome him even though they hadn’t had the money to install air conditioning in their house. The bandage on his underside burned in contrast, as regret welled up in his mind for what now seemed like a hasty decision to limit his fatherhood to one child. One that was not his own…
“I was lonely, Curtis,” Rachel wailed. “I’m so sorry. I’ve packed and I’ll leave now.” She found herself backed into a corner by the truck who she had never seen so furious, or even anything above slightly agitated for that matter.
“Whose is he, then?” he demanded, blocking her attempt to duck around him. “Or were you having so much fun you can’t remember?”
“There was only one!” she insisted, her heart thumping and the baby reacting to the surge of her adrenaline. “We were both drunk watching you win on TV. I probably initiated things…it wasn’t Tommy Joe’s fault.”
Just as suddenly as he’d pinned her, Curtis backed away from his lover, giving her access to leave. He wasn’t used to so much anger and had no intentions of following up with violence.
“Get out,” he said quietly. “Just take your baby and go.”
Not taking her eyes off him, Rachel took a hold of her suitcase and left, shame overwhelming her. He called her back once she was in the driveway and she hesitated, her desire to protect her child strong and her concern heightened over his mental state.
“You forgot these,” he said, sounding drained and giving her the bottle of prenatal vitamins she kept on the kitchen counter. “The doctor said he needs them to grow big and strong.” She stammered an expression of gratitude and left his life forever, and when he could no longer see her, his composure crumbled and he broke down. He wept for the son he no longer had, and for his sudden inability to feel love for the boy for whom he had given everything up.
* * *
Summer 2006
Curtis lurked in the shadows beneath Tommy Joe’s window, surprised to hear the sounds of a female voice conversing with the racecar. He couldn’t make out the words or identify their speaker, so he was flabbergasted to see Tow Mater’s wife slip out the front door moments later, looking disheveled.
I guess he really has already nailed everyone else in Carburetor County, thought the pickup. He hardly found it impressive that Tommy Joe would have a female visitor for the night since he was just as much of a swinger as the Jaguar Curtis had left sleeping back at his home, but he hadn’t thought Doreen was the cheating type. More than a little confused, he crouched down as she drove off.
He’s not content with destroying everyone else’s happiness, so he even has to start in on his cousin’s. The pickup thought of Rachel, as he had done countless times before. Had she bolted from this very house nearly three decades ago, ashamed of her weakness and feeling sick for what she’d done, or had she stayed around to promise Tommy Joe she’d be back whenever he wanted her?
Prowling around the perimeter of the house, Curtis located the racecar’s outdoor shed stocked with gasoline and took out a piece of chalk, discretely marking the cans of fuel that Tommy Joe would be likely to haul to the following weekend’s race. It would be too risky to taint them now; and there would be many opportunities to accomplish that at the track. When he was done, he returned to Chrissi’s side and his interrupted sleep.
* * *
Tommy Joe stared at his ceiling, feeling empty. After having gone a long time without taking on any other lovers than Chrissi only to have her leave him anyway, he’d hoped that some mindless pleasure would ease his loneliness. The experience with Doreen had only been remarkable because it was the first time he’d tried to get his partner pregnant, but it had been obvious her heart wasn’t into the act itself. She hadn’t even been willing to admit that she’d enjoyed it, so his lack of strength when he’d found himself pawing at her, practically begging for more, had surprised him all the more.
Instead of dwelling on what had been a lackluster night, despite what he’d reassured Doreen in the heat of the moment, he found himself realizing how much he missed Chrissi and how much he wished it had been her with him.
* * *
“Are ya ready to head to the Rustbucket, or would ya rather sort ol’ junk all evenin’?” Mater called to Doreen later that week. She gave a final shove against a rusted refrigerator, pushing it onto a flatbed to be hauled away and sold at the scrap depot.
Joining her husband and Fred, she peered back at her work. “Sorry, love, but it dawned on me that we kin’t have them damn fridges stacked about the place and I want ‘em gone. They could fall on someone, or the coolant could leak out an…” Mater listened curiously as she continued on about every possible danger from something that had never bothered her before, and he gave her a reassuring cuddle before they set out.
That sounds rather…broody, he thought, a glimmer of hope sparking in his mind. True to his word, he hadn’t demanded any details of her night with his cousin, but he had ascertained it was not something she was willing to repeat if they hadn’t had success. Since the previous weekend’s encounter, she seemed almost shy around him when he so much as leaned in to kiss her, and he wasn’t sure how to approach her about that, but he decided it would have to wait until after the race.
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- 9
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Freeriding