Closing Speed by Ted West

Author:Ted West
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: E.M. Landsea Publishers LLC
Published: 2018-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Back along the road the blue-white glare of Klieg lights in front of the cars cast barbarous shadows on the hotel walls. Two mechanics were finishing the repairs to the Devane/Winter Porsche.

"Sheep again..." Thorne grinned to Breitemann.

"Again?"

"On the cruise at Como, Jennifer and I had an exchange about men and the care and bedding of sheep."

Breitemann grinned. "I think she is very modern!”

Nick laughed.

The little roadside bar they had found just down the main road from the hotel had three outdoor tables. The large Cinzano umbrellas were wrapped tight around their poles for the night. Nick sipped his vino rosso. Breitemann drank acqua minerale.

"A very pretty woman," Breitemann said. "Is she as interesting as she looks?"

"If I say yes, I'm encouraging you to move in."

Breitemann's smile clouded. "No, no, my interest is not there."

"Then, you have an interest somewhere?"

"Everyone has, nicht war? Even we bashful ones."

"I'd hardly call you bashful."

"Oh, yes, my friend," Breitemann said. “There are many kinds of bashfulness, some very useful."

"Well, I certainly can't agree with that!" Thorne was letting the wine from dinner do the talking. "Bashfulness keeps you from getting the things you want."

"Oh? You are so sure?"

Nick nodded promptly. "As they say--if it feels good, do it."

"And if doing it causes only pain?"

The conversation was proceeding in code, a topic debated without being identified. It stung Thorne--he wanted to know what "it" was.

"But if you never go after what you want," he said, "you never get it!"

"I don't agree,” Breitemann smiled. “Some things, important things, you get only when they are given to you. Other things you never get at all and should not."

"That's just defeatist."

Breitemann nodded. "It is not American, no. But some things we want, we must not have."

Nick hated this. Breitemann's fame granted him virtually anything he wanted!

"If you were in my profession, Nick, you would know. Too often you see a thing you must have...a fastest lap, a place in the fastest team, someone you must have in your personal life...and you try for all you are worth, forcing it."

"But you have all those things!"

"Not all. And for many years I had none of them. Those years taught me well. The good things come to you only when you stop needing them too much." He watched Nick's frustration. "Learning to live is very hard, Nick, yes? Even for racing drivers--especially for racing drivers. No matter how much you have, always you must have more. It can be fatal."

The word chilled Nick.

"But the most important thing is to see the value of waiting," Breitemann said, "and to prepare for the possibility of not getting what you are waiting for! It happens even to people with the very greatest luck."

"Strange coming from you. You're saying, if you want something, give up!"

Breitemann's head shook. "The secret is to want what you have. That is very, very hard for racing drivers."

Thorne listened, confused and tantalized. It was like some fatuous Zen paradox the only cunning of which was in its self-contradiction and word trickery.

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