Bonus Issue: A Day Out

When Jennifer saw the flyer about the motorcycle stunt show she couldn’t explain why but she sort of knew she had to go. It was a really nice warm Saturday and it was actually a welcomed change from Jennifer’s sort of lonely life she was having nowadays. Many fathers with their children were here sometimes even entire families but it was not really a female attracted sport so Jennifer was one of very few girls in the audience. She had quite nice seats where she could see pretty much everything. But before she went to her seat she got a huge portion of chilli cheese fries and with her fake ID that said she was twenty-one even though when she was not at all that old but hey a girl needed her Margarita to enjoy a good stunt show. Jennifer was not the tallest person and had actually troubles to carry her food and drink when she accidently ran into someone but when she turned around no one seemed to be complaining about it so her mumbled “I’m sorry.” was said to no one.
Jennifer felt weird being here all of it felt like a déjà vu but she was sure that she had never been here, with whom should she have gone anyway her parents would have never gone with her to such a fun event and she didn’t have any friends that would have taken her .

“Daddy can girls do this?” A blond boy asked his father.

“What drive stunts? No they are too fragile.” The man answered, which made Jennifer giggle.

“They can but I guess not the girls you know.” Jennifer whispered to herself. But those two had caused an idea to form. Jennifer got up and hurried down the stairs, she ran once in a while into people going up the stairs but she did not pay too much attention to them she had a wonderful idea. She would see if she can drive one of the bikes. It would be a lot of fun to drive those stunts.

It was a ritual, that was all. Since Jenny had been little Mark had brought her along to the show, and now she was gone he kept coming. It was a little routine that helped him remember the good times. Back when he still had a family, before he was alone.
Mark made his way through the crowd to his seat, a little unsteady after spending the morning drinking. He sat down heavily in his chair, a beer in one hand and pulling a cigar from his pocket from another. In theory there was a no smoking policy, but it was hardly enforced at something like this. As long as you didn’t light up right on front of a cop.

“Damn,” muttered Mark and slipped the cigar back in his pocket, waiting for the patrolling officer to move away. Eventually he moved on, allowing Mark not only to light up but giving better him a view of the arena. Though, in some ways it didn’t matter what actually happened in the show. It was unlikely Mark would actually see it, let alone remember. His mind was already drifting towards the past.

"Dirk, I still think the children are a little too young to be at a motorcycle stunt show," Joan said gently as she shifted Scott on her hip. Six-month old Alex was in a carrier strapped to Dirk's chest, gurgling happily as he took in the excitement going around him. Dirk was wearing dark glasses and a hat because even though they were on vacation in another town, he was still often recognized when they went out in public as the up-and-coming star shortstop of the Boston Red Sox. Most of the time, people kept either a polite or an awed distance, but really the thing to watch out for were reporters.

"Come on, honey, it's all right," Dirk said, wrapping an arm around his wife, feeling the flutter of her wings as they were worn pinned under her long coat. "They're too young to be impressionable. And plenty of other families have brought their kids."

"I just don't understand why you like these things. They're so violent!" As if proving her point, Scott curled his chubby arms around her neck and put his head down on her shoulder.

Dirk kissed her cheek. "If the kids get upset, or if you want to, we can leave. I just want to watch for a bit," he said as they made their way to their seats down in front. Admittedly, he didn't really like these sorts of events (they were too violent), but they held a certain nostalgia for him. They reminded him of Mark, and of Jenny, fondly, and he felt it was a kind of odd tradition, like toasting fallen comrades. Also, it was one of the few spectator events they could go to where reporters didn't usually--

"Mr. Rogers, do you mind if we ask you a couple of questions?"

“Hey what do I have to do to drive one of the bikes?” Jennifer asked a guy with a clipboard and headset.

“Sign the papers that say that you might die and it will not be our fault since you did it on your own free will.” The guy sounded bored.

“Sure I can do that. Give them to me I’ll sign them.” Jennifer t took the papers and signed them all, after that she took the helmet but not the jacket or trousers. She was dressed in just very short jeans shorts and a tank top that was hugging her figure tightly.

“You will need the protection clothes.” The guy said.

“You might need them I don’t all I want is the helmet.”

“Fine, what’s your name to announce you as driver?”

“Smokey!”

Jennifer drove the bike a little around before she went to the start point and heard her name being announced, the audience cheered loudly for her, she was about to start her drive when she noticed a few reporter around a man and his family and it didn’t take her more than a second to recognize him.

Seriously out of all places you take your friggen family here? For what show how the poor people live?

Jennifer didn’t notice it but her eyes were burning in anger, she had hoped never to see Dirk again. Ever! But here he was in the audience including his wife and apparently two kids. This day was turning into a normal shit day. Jennifer started to wonder why she came in the first place. She hated crowded events like this but still somewhere deep down in her broken heart she had the urge to come to this stunt show.
Some men in the audience where laughing about her lack of protective gear but she didn’t bother that at all but she mind that he was here.

What next Mark shows up with Amanda?

“Daddy, when I grow up, can I drive stunt bikes?”

“If you still want to, then of course” Mark replied to his daughter with a smile, though he was unable to actually face Jenny as she was sitting on his shoulders. At his side, Amanda poked him hard in the ribs, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

“You really shouldn’t encourage her to do something as dangerous as this.”

“We can’t protect her forever Amanda. She’ll be out in the big wide world before you know it,” Mark replied. Amanda scowled slightly, not wanting to concede that Mark had a point.

Someone jostled Mark accidently from behind, snapping him back to the present. The riders spun round in the arena below pulling numerous death defying tricks. Yet Mark was still unable to concentrate on the spectacle below, still pondering the memory he had been visiting.

If Jenny had still been alive today, would she have still have been interested in stunt driving? Or would maturity, and possibly her mother, have driven her interests in another, safer direction. Despite the years that had passed since her death, Mark still felt a little prang of concern thinking about Jenny in the stunt show. Some parental instincts never faded.

If she had taken it up, Mark hoped at least she’d be more sensible than that one young girl on the course. No protection except for a helmet. He shook his head, already suspect how events were going to play out for the obviously over-confident rider.

Jenny was doing a rather bold triple somersault with her bike when she suddenly saw it… him; Mark sitting there in the middle of the audience as if nothing was weird about this. Why the hell was he even here?

“Oh right he always liked those shows and never let me go because I was a girl and should rather learn to crochet then be interested in stunt bike driving. Fucking asshole.” Jenny muttered, and then it happened. She was too distracted by watching Mark and lost grip of her handle, her bike flew off without her. She was falling like a meteor well no she was very hard trying not to burn like a meteor as she was falling very fast towards the ground.

“Shit!” Jenny felt the crashing of several bones in her body and she heard the screams of pretty much everyone. “This will not be fun to explain.”
Jenny got up despite the broken bones and blood running down her body and waved it off. Medics were running towards her but she pushed them away.

“Get away I don’t need you.” Jenny knew that they could not take off her helmet Mark would recognize her even after all this time, well she has not changed a lot so everyone who knew her would recognize her easily. Her right arm was a nasty looking open fracture, Jenny felt the blood loss started to affect her but she kept walking off the arena and away from the crowds into her car.

“This really hurts.” Jenny leaned her head on the steering wheel and let the tears run freely. She was mad at her father that he dared to come to this stunt show and then there was Dirk with his horrible family while she was still alone and hurt.

“This is not fair!”