Don't Let Go: Day 15

Word Count: 90,027

Summary of Events:

Owing to the intense emotions of being at the Nürburgring to race without Uncle Zikki, Tor had a miserable qualifying that saw him starting thirtieth of thirty-one drivers. He was inclined to despair, but Arndt called him and offered encouragement, and he also ended up learning that one of Alexa's cousins was bringing his five or six-year-old son to the track for his first time watching live racing, which prompted Tor to strive to do his best despite his grief. His best, as it happened, turned out to be pretty good, as he came across the line in third at the chequered flag…

Excerpt of the Day:

Blinking to try and get the tears out of his eyes so that he could navigate the track, Tor hoped that he could pull himself together soon enough to stand on the podium and smile, but, at the same time, he felt sure that he’d go to pieces on the podium, for he’d be standing on the exact same step that Uncle Zikki had stood on when he’d first seen Uncle Zikki race.

As he navigated the track, Tor strove to banish his thoughts and memories of Uncle Zikki from his mind before he reached the pit lane, where he pulled up to the board with the number three printed onto it, being careful to come to a full stop before he made contact with the board.

Tor shut off his car and sat still for a moment before carefully removing his steering wheel from its place and setting it on the bodywork that covered his legs. He then unfastened his seatbelts slowly before carefully wiggling his way out of his car. He put his steering wheel back in before he climbed out of the cockpit.

Aston, who’d won the race, was standing, looking to have been waiting. He wrapped Tor in a tight embrace, but if he said anything, Tor didn’t hear it.

After releasing Tor, Aston jogged over to their team — among whom was standing Nikon, who’d been forced to retire when his car got caught up in a collision at the end of the start-finish straight — and embraced the team members eagerly and enthusiastically.

Nikon beckoned to Tor, who walked over slowly. As soon as Tor got close enough, Nikon reached out and pulled him into a tight embrace. Tor desperately tried to blink the tears out of his eyes, but to no avail.

“I knew you could do it,” Nikon said.

Tor released Nikon and ended up being dragged into embraces by the team, who had been tender and sympathetic toward Tor all weekend, and Tor could feel that even though they were celebrating, they were also sympathetic toward him, conveying an understanding of his emotions.

It wasn’t until after he’d been weighed that Tor took off his helmet, HANS device, balaclava, and even his gloves.

“Didn’t you start in thirtieth?” Ákos — the other podium finisher — asked.

Tor nodded, taking up a towel and wiping his face.

“How did you get here then?” Ákos asked.

“That crash that took out just about half the field probably helped,” Aston said.

Tor nodded.

“But even still,” Ákos said. “How did you do it?”

“I don’t know,” Tor replied, shrugging.

They made their way toward the exit out onto the podium, where Tor was announced as the third-place finisher. He managed to wave to the crowd before stepping up onto the podium, where he wiped his face with the towel he’d brought with him, hoping to hide the fact that he was still struggling not to cry.

Pronunciations:

Nikon: neekawn

Ákos: ahkohs