Don't Let Go: Day 10

Word Count: 60,027

Summary of Events:

Tor contacted Alexa, Madlenka, and Uncle Zikki's best friend Arndt, to see if they knew of anyone who might be interested in sponsoring him. Unfortunately, Alexa informed him that none of Uncle Zikki's sponsors who didn't already sponsor Tor were interested in doing so because Tor wasn't planning on moving to the US to race. Arndt supplied Tor with the names of two startups that agreed to small deals, which was better than nothing, but Tor had heard nothing from Madlenka, and he had less than a week before he needed to get to Italy for his next race. He was, however, approached by his older sister, who made an offer to help Tor when it came to how he was getting to Italy from a practical standpoint…

Excerpt of the Day:

“Can you?” Tor asked.

“Ja,” Orlanda replied. “I’ve got some friends from school that live in Rome, and I promised I’d visit them this summer.”

“And you’ll take me with you?” Tor asked.

“Secretly, of course,” Orlanda replied.

“Of course,” Tor agreed.

“I’m thinking we tell Vater and Mama we’re going for a hike,” Orlanda replied. “Which we would do, but, instead of coming home, we go to the airport and fly to Rome.”

Tor nodded. “And then you would take me to the track or…?”

“Only if you need,” Orlanda replied.

“Okay,” Tor said. “You’ll be able to leave on Thursday?”

“Ja,” Orlanda replied. “And stay until Monday too.”

“Good,” Tor said. “I’ll make sure I’m ready.”

“But like a hike,” Orlanda whispered.

Tor nodded, smiling gratefully at Orlanda, who gave him a mischievous grin in return before leaving.

In terms of her actual sentiments about his racing career, Orlanda was generally neutral, not really having the most significant of interests in racing, but, at the same time, being willing to watch it and hear about it, but in terms of the ends it would accomplish, Orlanda was quite interested.

Orlanda was the one who had an interest in the company. She had devoured the subjects Tor was being forcibly tutored in with relish during her school years, and was actually in the midst of expanding her education in them at university.

Her original intention had been to get a position at the company, but her and Tor’s combined efforts to that end had met with little success; indeed, somehow they’d resulted in Tor getting disowned by Großvater — not that Tor minded not having anything to do with him, if he was honest — while Orlanda was still slated to receive an inheritance upon Großvater’s death.

Tor didn’t altogether understand why Großvater still meant to give something to Orlanda, considering he had been quite scandalised by the fact that she wanted to take over the company — and had rather loudly gone on about the proud history of the company having been handed from father to son from its founding in protest — but Tor didn’t really ponder the matter too much.

He was, however, grateful that Orlanda had become more determined than ever when her aspirations of getting work in the company at all — forget her aims to run it — had been so stoutly rebuffed to help Tor succeed in his racing career in a bit of revenge on Vater and Großvater for rejecting her, when she was twice as willing as Tor would ever be.

Even though Tor had never thought he’d see the day when Mama would fail him, the fact that he had Orlanda to fall back on — except when it came to getting a hearing with Vater, as she met no more success on that front than Tor did most of the time — was something he had to admit that he appreciated. Now all he needed was the money.

Pronunciations:

Arndt: awnt

Großvater: grohssfahteh