“She’s been exactly what I needed. I was sorry to hear that things didn’t work out for her at Range Sports. When I heard that she was open to possibly move, I had to snatch her up.”
It was fortunate our teacher came in at that moment. Devin didn’t seem happy to have lost Caryn.
“I’m Bill Scott, and you must be Devin Range and David Dawson. They told me that you’re both wanting to improve your driving skills and have security needs,” he said before starting.
“I’m an actor, and Devin owns a sporting goods company,” I said.
“I also understand you both drive Dodge Charger Hellcats. That’s a lot of car,” Bill said.
We both nodded and smiled.
“The average driver only uses about forty percent of a car’s capabilities. We only have three sessions to get you improved. Our goal is to get you to sixty percent or better after three days. We’ll start with a short classroom session and then get you behind the wheel with a personal driving instructor. We believe you’ll learn best by doing. Does that sound good?” Bill asked.
He then showed us a PowerPoint presentation on the Security Driving Triangle. It described the three pillars of driving: the driver, the vehicle, and the environment. Bill talked about how those three aspects of driving are critical in the real world. His presentation highlighted just how technical the act of driving was. Thanks to his talk, Devin and I gained a better understanding of the three components. These were the factors of success or failure in behind-the-wheel emergencies.
After the classroom session, we were taken out to the track. Bill was going to be my one-on-one driving instructor. They had a Charger just like mine. I now understood why Devin was here. He’d provided the cars.
“We talked about several things in the classroom. What we want you to learn is how to handle this car. You’ll see that there are only orange cones on the track. That’s so if you make a mistake, it doesn’t have to be serious,” Bill said.
“I’ll try not to run any of them over.”
“What would be the fun in that?” he asked with a grin.
The first thing he taught me was how to smoke the tires. I was in heaven. The Charger wasn’t designed to be anything but what it was, an American muscle car. It was a throwback to when people wanted to go fast. Bill showed me how to handle the beast and what to expect. He gave me the confidence not to hold back. That’s not to say some of the big orange cones weren’t toast, but Bill made driving fun.
My fear had always been that with as much power as there was under the hood of the Charger Hellcat, I might lose control of it. Bill pushed me until I did and taught me what to do when it happened. It’s one of those situations where knowledge breeds confidence, and that translates to performance. By the end of class, I had us screaming around the course. I could hardly wait for tomorrow’s class.
Fritz met me at the car.
“Let me drive,” I said.
“Not only no, but
We were giving Devin a lift to his hotel. He came out.
“He won’t let me drive,” I complained.
“Thank you,” Devin said to Fritz. “Did you see that maniac?”
“You both suck,” I said and got into the car.
On the ride home, Devin wanted to talk about us.
“I was hoping we could be friends again,” Devin said.
“You have a strange way of being my friend. I bring a girl with me, and you try to snake her from me. I don’t have any friends that would do that,” I snapped.
“Nancy was all wrong for you, and you know it. When you get older, you’ll understand things better. You need to get over your snit. I was doing you a favor. I believe she’s going out with one of your other friends now. It’s not a big deal,” Devin shot back.
“Don’t take me for granted. That ‘I’m older and wiser’ line is just bullshit. I don’t care what age you are, you don’t go after someone else’s woman and expect them to just take it. You didn’t do it only once, did you?”
“David … I’m sorry about Nancy. I shouldn’t have done that,” he admitted.
“Why didn’t you say that at the time? Why did you tap-dance around it and blame her for misunderstanding your intentions? If you’d apologized and manned-up, I’d still trust you.”
“I agree, and I’m sorry. There’s no good excuse for what I did. I felt awful when you left, and Sandy was all over my ass about it. I honestly didn’t know how to fix it. The worst part was Nancy would have been the perfect woman for me, but I messed that up, too.”
“I agree; when you pushed your affections on her, you were never going to win her over. Nancy saw the light and was embarrassed when she realized how you’d played her. There was no coming back from that,” I said.
“I did it again in New Orleans, didn’t I? But we both know you had no feelings for Cora,” he said.
“You know that now, but at the time you thought you could just snake another girl from the dumb high school kid,” I said.
