“Yes sir.”
“Anyway, we‘d like to try again. We‘re testing in Phoenix this coming Wednesday, and I‘d like to have you come out and take some laps with us. Would you be interested?”
Jimmy‘s head was pounding like crazy, and his stomach churned. He couldn‘t believe what he was hearing.
“Yes sir, I‘d definitely be interested.”
“Glad to hear it!” Mr. Skaggs said. “Here‘s what I want you to do…got a pencil? I‘ll give you my secretary‘s number…call her Monday morning and she‘ll arrange your plane ticket. We‘ll fly you in Tuesday night, and fly you home on Thursday morning. Does that work with your schedule?”
The truth is, Jimmy didn‘t really have a schedule, and even if he did he‘d cancel everything in order to make it to Phoenix.
“Yes sir, that works fine,” he replied, and he fumbled to find a pen so he could write down the number.
“Excellent,” Mr. Skaggs said. “And just to let you know, we‘ll be testing another driver as well on Wednesday. OK?”
“Yes sir, that‘s fine. Thank you, Mr. Skaggs. It‘s great to hear from you.”
“Very good. We‘ll see you on Wednesday. Good talking with you.”
Jimmy heard a click, and then a dial tone. He continued to press the phone to his ear, too shocked to hang up the receiver.
Dang.
Jimmy hung up the phone, and immediately picked it back up. Better call Renee and tell her the news.
It was a busy Monday at the Farm Bureau Co-op, and the day passed quickly. Autumn was at hand, and Jimmy and everybody else at the grain operation prepared for the onslaught of the coming harvest season. There would be lots of trucks unloading, dryers running, and plenty of work to do.
This job had become a good setup for Jimmy. When he busted his arm last fall — gee, the one-year anniversary of his crash was coming up — the guy running the grain operation offered him a desk job, running the scale. Marv was somewhat of a racing fan, but he was mostly just a good guy. With his left arm in a big cast Jimmy was limited in what he could do, but he could easily handle riding a desk. Marv‘s kind offer of a job helped Jimmy get through a tight winter.
When his arm healed up and the cast came off, Jimmy moved to an outside job, helping load and unload grain trucks. Plus, when Marv discovered that Jimmy was handy with tools he also had him doing some maintenance work.
There were lots of mornings this past summer when Jimmy didn‘t want to come to work, didn‘t want to have a job. He thought about quitting — especially when he was winning races and the money was coming in nicely — but he felt an obligation to Marv. Plus, Jimmy knew the facts of life: the timespan between the last race in October and the first race the following March made for a mighty long stretch without any money coming in. That‘s why even a successful sprint car racer needed a job in the winter.
Marv had also been lenient about letting Jimmy take off when he needed to go racing, and that too was appreciated. Like the test in Phoenix in a couple of days; when Jimmy told Marv what was going on, Marv was understanding and said it would be no problem.
“Hey Jimmy!” a voice called out. “Telephone call!”