The Legend (40 page)

“Talk to him,” he encouraged. “...he needs to hear
your voice.”

My eyes closed slowly. Maybe if I blinked, it
wouldn’t be real, didn’t work.

“He’s in a medically induced coma. How can he hear
me?”

“He can hear you.” He assured me and stepped out
leaving us alone for the first time. “I honestly believe that’s the way to
recover from something like this. He needs to hear you. He needs to feel your
touch and know he has you with him.”

I didn’t say anything but stared at Jameson again
as tears streamed down my face.

How could Nancy be so brave?

My vision was bleary from my tears. I swept the
back of my hand over my cheeks.

I wanted to touch him, feel his skin against mine
but he looked so fragile I didn’t want to risk it. When I could see again, I
followed the outline of his arm up his shoulder to his face again. The curve of
his lips reminded me of the way he kissed me goodbye before he left. I
remembered what his green eyes looked like when he whispered he loved me and
then kissed me once again before he left.

Those were the last memories I had of him.

I couldn’t imagine my life without him. He was my
world but then I thought, at least you have this time with him. Nancy didn’t
get to see Jimi at all, not until he was gone. Jameson was alive. I needed to
be thankful for that right now. I understood that much.

My emotions wavered back and forth between being
grateful to fearing the worst.

After another few minutes the doctor came back
inside. “Mrs. Riley, I’m sorry but I can only have you in here for a few
minutes. Visitors aren’t allowed on this floor.” His voice was full of regret.
I knew he had no choice.

I ran my hands over my heated face, flushed with
exhaustion and emotions.

“I understand.” I nodded taking another long
glance at Jameson.

The doctor smiled half-heartedly. “I would let you
stay if it were up to me.”

“I know.”

I hesitated when I got up, unsure if I could touch
him or not so I looked back at the doctor.

His head nodded once with a soft smile. “If you
want to kiss him, go ahead. Just be mindful of the tubes.”

I settled on lightly kissing his cheek before
whispering to him. “I love you. Please come back to me.”

I wouldn’t let anything take away what he was to
me as it would never change. He once asked me to stay some twenty years ago and
now, here I was, begging him to stay with me.

Jimi used to tell us your life was all about the
laps within the race. Some you lead, some you hang back and watch, others your
lapped traffic. Then there are the flying laps when life flies and you’ve made
the most ground and accomplished what you set out to do. And then one day the
race is over, your laps are done. You’re left with the memories of the laps you
led, as they were what matter most in setting time.

No amount of laps would be enough for me though,
not when it came to Jameson.

I wanted forever. Afraid to love him for so many
years, I was more afraid of the loss.

17.
          
Collected – Sway

Collected – When a car is caught in an
incident that they did not cause. If a car spins and is struck by a second car
to a stop, the second car is said to be collected.

Everyone
from the fans waiting in the lobby to the pressing media pushing their way past
security, wanted to know what happened and why?

The
biggest question was with a nearly five million dollar contract racing in the
Cup series, why was Jameson allowed to race sprint cars?

When
tragedy hits the racing community, it shakes them to their very core. No one is
left unaffected in the wake which spreads past the confines of concrete walls
and cheering fans. It’s a tragedy that can rip you apart and leave you
wondering if there will be any pieces left.

We
understood the feeling and knew what this meant.

The news
hit the media instantly, our phones rang non-stop. The hours and days went by
slowly as I ignored my phone. Anyone I wanted to talk to was here already.

Most of
that time waiting was spent fielding the media and consoling our family but
there were times where I just sat and stared at that photo of him next to the
condom ad. I also called his cell phone over and over again to hear his voice.
Every time it made me cry.

Would he
wake up? Would he remember me? Would he remember his family?

Only time
would tell. By Friday night, he was still listed in critical condition and the
doctor was going in again to control more bleeding in his brain. So far, it
wasn’t looking good for him.

Alley was
kind enough to let me stay with Nancy, I was worried about her, and Kyle dealt
with all the media and Speedweeks issues. Daytona would be starting in just two
weeks and as of now, Jameson wasn’t awake and there was no way he would make
Daytona.

This left
one option. We hired another driver that was racing in the
Nationwide
series to step-up.

Easton
Levi who was driving for Tate in the
Nationwide
series
for the last few years and won last year’s championship. As soon as Tate heard,
he asked if we wanted Easton in the car. After talking with Kyle and Mason, they
agreed he would be a good addition.

Essentially
that decision would have been up to Jimi or Jameson, who was a partial owner of
Riley-Simplex racing. Randy still acted as the vice president but Jimi usually
made it clear he didn’t make decisions like that regarding drivers.

Now is
where all the legalities came in.

Somehow,
and I don’t exactly know how or when this happened, but Jameson had listed me
as the Power of Attorney for the company if something were to happen to him or
Jimi.

Imagine my
surprise.

With my
new found responsibility, I turned to Tate and Kyle who both thought Easton
would be a perfect fit in Jameson’s No. 9 Simplex car and team up nicely with
Bobby Cole who was now back in the No. 90 car and Paul Leighty in the No. 19.

The news was
released to the media formally by Alley at ten o’clock Friday morning.

She kept
it simple by stating. “I’m sorry to say that Jimi Riley, retired World of
Outlaws champion, has passed away following a fatal accident at Knoxville
Raceway on Wednesday night. His son and NASCAR Cup driver Jameson Riley is
listed in critical condition. We would like to say more about his condition but
at this time, we don’t know.”

Right
after Alley made the announcement, news broke out and soon Knoxville Raceway
issued their statement.

Knoxville
IA – January 27, 2022

“After
hours of touch and go, Jimi Riley, the 31 time retired World of Outlaws
champion was pronounced dead at 2:21 a.m. at the University of Iowa.” Director
of competition for Knoxville Raceway, Larry Shields, said Thursday morning.
“Races for the remainder of the first annual Frost Nationals have been
cancelled.”

Jimi
Riley was pronounced dead just hours after a horrific crash during the Frost
Nationals at Knoxville Raceway. Riley had retired from the tour last year
handing over the reins to his grandson, Axel Riley, who was also racing last
night.

The
initial crash happened when a left rear tire blew on Jimi’s car as he was
attempting a pass on the outside of turns one and two. When that happened, his car
took a sharp left hand turn coming down on his son, and NASCAR Cup driver,
Jameson Riley.

Both
cars made a series of flips, were hit by other cars trying to avoid the wreck
and then eventually came to a rest.

Jimi,
who suffered a severed spinal cord at the base of his skull and never regained
consciousness, Jameson, whose injuries are unknown at this time, has been
listed in critical condition.

From
track officials it’s believed he suffered a head injury but wouldn’t say to
what level.

I
appreciated the fact that doctors and family were not releasing details
surrounding Jameson’s injuries. We didn’t know the extent right now and didn’t
want speculation.

No matter
how many times I read the news reports, or watched ESPN and SPEED, it still
hadn’t sunk in that Jimi was gone. I just kept imaging him sleeping like
Jameson was.

NASCAR,
and more importantly, its president Patrick, wasn’t pleased that Jameson was in
a sprint car again. Jameson brought a lot of money to NASCAR. I knew Patrick
cared for Jameson but to me, it was about money for them. Money they were
losing out on.

Simplex
understood but I knew it wouldn’t be the last we heard about the incident. If
Jameson made it, and still raced in the Cup series, I knew they would never let
him race anything other than in the Cup car they sponsored.

Come
Saturday afternoon, I was getting nervous that Jameson hadn’t improved any to
be taken off the anesthesia yet. Dr. Howe assured me there were signs of him
being able to take him off it soon but not yet.

I had another
chance to talk to Justin and Axel about the accident. They were both right
behind them when it happened. The general census among the group that was in
Knoxville was that something had broken on Jimi’s car, but the way Jameson’s
roll cage didn’t hold up was an concern.

Tommy,
Willie, and Axel flew back to Mooresville to take care of business back home. I
had a feeling they were about to deal with what should have been done months
ago.

For the
rest of us at the hospital, we waited. Our lives were on hold.

I would
love to say that I was helpful to my family around me and supportive of the
loss that we had endured but I can’t say that I was. My mind was, and could
only; concentrate on my husband being supported by machines. The other part that
bothered me was that I wasn’t allowed to see him.

On Monday
afternoon, they decided it was time that they could start to ease him off the
anesthesia but it was a slow process. By Tuesday evening, he was finally
breathing on his own but still heavily medicated. I listened to the doctors and
never left his side. Their response was, “We wait. The longer you’re out, the
longer it takes to wake up. Once he does, we wait even longer to see the extent
of the damage.”

In the
meantime, we had to decide what to do about Jimi and the funeral. His wishes
were to be cremated. After that, we weren’t sure when we would have a funeral
as it didn’t feel right with Jameson not knowing. We all agreed to postpone the
funeral until Jameson was well enough to attend.

It’s not
unfamiliar to our family but in the blink of an eye, a race that was supposed
to be just for fun, turned deadly. In the blink of an eye, you’re staring into
darkness. Could it be that your entire world was shattered in that instant? It
sure felt like it to us.

I kept
hoping and praying that I would blink and he would wake up. Or when I would
return in the morning, maybe it would have all been a dream. I thought that
every time someone left but it never changed. He remained sleeping. Healing I
hoped.

I don’t
think I would ever understand death any more than I understood the addiction I
had to coffee. All I knew was that I would be here for him in any way I could,
waiting.

By Friday
afternoon, over a week of being out of it, they moved Jameson to a room on the
third floor where he could finally have one visitor at a time.

And we
waited.

And we
waited longer.

At some
point, it felt like we had been living in that hospital for months when we had
only been there for sixteen days.

On
Saturday, February eleventh, our praying and wishing came true. Jameson showed
signs of improvement.

I was in
his room at the time, staring at him again when I noticed his hand twitch
inside of mine. Up until this point, he would twitch every once in a while but
nothing would happen. This time, his eye lids fluttered. They didn’t open, but
they fluttered in a sign that my husband was in there somewhere.

What did I
do?

I burst
into tears. Classic emotional Mama Wizard move.

Collected – Jameson

I felt as though
I was wading through concrete. Everything was so heavy. All my efforts were to
no avail.  I could do nothing but waited for a change that never seemed to
come.

Voices
shouted around me, ordering others around or me maybe. Hovering and shinning
lights in my eyes. There were more stabbing pains as I fought for each breath
that wouldn’t come.

I wasn’t
sure where I was. The room felt cold, unbearably cold.

I was
tired, I knew that much. Tired and cold, my eyes felt heavy, deep black was the
only color I could see at times and then those lights faded as did my memories.

The lights
were bright, whooshing around me in waves or circles. Looping around, then they
were black, fading with the memories of where I was.

I hurt.
The worst possible pain I’d ever felt before. It radiated throughout me, took
power over every emotion I had. There was a stabbing feeling, or maybe it was
the noise. I wasn’t sure any more. There was loud ringing in my ears or my
head. I wasn’t sure but I wanted it to stop. I wanted to move away from the
sounds and pain, but I couldn’t. My arms and legs felt bound.