Shelby Manning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shelbycobra) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2016-10-08 03:37 am
shelbycobra) wrote in muserevival2016-10-08 03:37 am
Entry tags:
129.2.3 - quote
"Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart."
It was a series of conversations that led to the most difficult moment Shelby had ever faced in her life.
The announcement had happened on Wednesday. Her former teammate was going to join Team Penske and become her current teammate. She was happy for Josef; she'd spent her first two years racing with him and knew that he was talented, as well as a good colleague and a great representative for the IndyCar Series. But his decision wasn't so simple as just being reunited with a friend.
There was, by chronology's sake, a very firm dividing line between who Shelby had once been and the woman she was today. Her tenure with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing was a year removed from the new career she had built with Team Penske. And she liked it that way. Psychologically it worked for her. It meant that nothing from before, when she had screwed up and everything had gone so badly wrong, was touching the success she had now. Josef coming into the organization was her past now intruding upon her present and her future.
And it put the careers of some of the people she loved most at risk. No one knew if his crew members would be coming with him to Penske, staying with what was now Ed Carpenter Racing, or losing their jobs altogether. Those crew members included Shelby's longtime friend Peter Fowler and her father. Both of them had moved to Josef's team when she had left the organization and now they might possibly be getting left behind.
The thought was killing her inside and everyone knew it. She didn't have to say anything about it. The first person to ask about it was Shane, who broke his usual self-imposed exile in his Charlotte condo to call and say he would be there if she needed to talk. She wanted to take him up on that, but had no idea what to tell him. Especially not when one of the people involved was the person he'd replaced.
The second conversation happened on Friday when Derrick Hanson showed up on her doorstep in Indianapolis. Her spotter, usually known as the most light-hearted of the team, was anything but when she invited him into the house. "I heard about your father," he said, "and I wanted to tell you, if he wants to join you I'm willing to move."
Shelby had just stared at him. For him to say that he was considering giving up his own job just so that her father would have a place to land was the kind of massive sacrifice she could never ask for and would never even have fathomed. The mere thought made tears come to her eyes as she pulled him into a tight hug. "I can't ask you to do that," she replied, and she would not. Not just because she wouldn't do that to him. Not just because her father would never want her to. But because this was her team now, and they had won two championships together, and why would she want anyone else?
But if she thought that was emotional it was nothing compared to the third conversation. It was Saturday when her father called and asked if she could come to dinner. So it was sitting across a table at Red Lobster that she learned Richard Manning was going to turn down any offer and he was planning to leave IndyCar.
"What?" she said, blurting out the word before she could control herself. "Dad, you can't do that. Why would you do that?"
It just didn't make sense. They hadn't worked together for three years now but she knew her father was still very good at his job. He had always had the respect of everyone in their sport. And she had expected that he would always be there. Maybe not on her stand but she was always supposed to be able to walk down pit lane and see him before a race, or run over after and hug him and celebrate their victories together. She had never thought of a career without her father in it.
He had expected this adverse reaction and spoke to her as patiently as he ever had. "Shelby, in a few years I'm going to be sixty years old," he told her. "I've watched both the drivers I've had the pleasure of working with go on to drive for the best team in the sport. Both my kids have flown the nest. I don't need to start over again. I can move on, spend more time with your mother, and finally support you.
"The last two years I've seen you win two championships but I've always seen them while I've been trying to compete with my own team. You've accomplished some of the most amazing things and I could never completely enjoy them. Now I can go to your races and just be your father."
"I just don't," she sputtered, looking at the table while this time she knew the tears were rolling down her cheeks. "You were always supposed to be here."
"And I will still be here," he told her. "I'm just going to be cheering for you instead of trying to see a way to drive around you."
That made her laugh despite herself but it was a hollow laugh. Shelby left that dinner feeling like someone had ripped her heart out. There was a certain way that her world was always meant to turn and that included getting to see her father at work each week. Knowing that he was out there doing what they both loved, even if it was no longer with her. She liked that they had that brotherhood. First she cried at the thought of him leaving, then she hated Josef for his decision that had started this in the first place, and then she just wondered why this all had to happen just days after she'd been celebrating the best year of her entire life. How quickly things changed.
It was at two in the morning on Sunday that she had the fourth conversation. She reaches for her phone on the nightstand and calls Shane back. Wakes him up in Charlotte because now she knows what to say. "Dad's leaving," she chokes out, "and I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing right now."
--
Shelby Manning
Need For Speed OC
1066 words
It was a series of conversations that led to the most difficult moment Shelby had ever faced in her life.
The announcement had happened on Wednesday. Her former teammate was going to join Team Penske and become her current teammate. She was happy for Josef; she'd spent her first two years racing with him and knew that he was talented, as well as a good colleague and a great representative for the IndyCar Series. But his decision wasn't so simple as just being reunited with a friend.
There was, by chronology's sake, a very firm dividing line between who Shelby had once been and the woman she was today. Her tenure with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing was a year removed from the new career she had built with Team Penske. And she liked it that way. Psychologically it worked for her. It meant that nothing from before, when she had screwed up and everything had gone so badly wrong, was touching the success she had now. Josef coming into the organization was her past now intruding upon her present and her future.
And it put the careers of some of the people she loved most at risk. No one knew if his crew members would be coming with him to Penske, staying with what was now Ed Carpenter Racing, or losing their jobs altogether. Those crew members included Shelby's longtime friend Peter Fowler and her father. Both of them had moved to Josef's team when she had left the organization and now they might possibly be getting left behind.
The thought was killing her inside and everyone knew it. She didn't have to say anything about it. The first person to ask about it was Shane, who broke his usual self-imposed exile in his Charlotte condo to call and say he would be there if she needed to talk. She wanted to take him up on that, but had no idea what to tell him. Especially not when one of the people involved was the person he'd replaced.
The second conversation happened on Friday when Derrick Hanson showed up on her doorstep in Indianapolis. Her spotter, usually known as the most light-hearted of the team, was anything but when she invited him into the house. "I heard about your father," he said, "and I wanted to tell you, if he wants to join you I'm willing to move."
Shelby had just stared at him. For him to say that he was considering giving up his own job just so that her father would have a place to land was the kind of massive sacrifice she could never ask for and would never even have fathomed. The mere thought made tears come to her eyes as she pulled him into a tight hug. "I can't ask you to do that," she replied, and she would not. Not just because she wouldn't do that to him. Not just because her father would never want her to. But because this was her team now, and they had won two championships together, and why would she want anyone else?
But if she thought that was emotional it was nothing compared to the third conversation. It was Saturday when her father called and asked if she could come to dinner. So it was sitting across a table at Red Lobster that she learned Richard Manning was going to turn down any offer and he was planning to leave IndyCar.
"What?" she said, blurting out the word before she could control herself. "Dad, you can't do that. Why would you do that?"
It just didn't make sense. They hadn't worked together for three years now but she knew her father was still very good at his job. He had always had the respect of everyone in their sport. And she had expected that he would always be there. Maybe not on her stand but she was always supposed to be able to walk down pit lane and see him before a race, or run over after and hug him and celebrate their victories together. She had never thought of a career without her father in it.
He had expected this adverse reaction and spoke to her as patiently as he ever had. "Shelby, in a few years I'm going to be sixty years old," he told her. "I've watched both the drivers I've had the pleasure of working with go on to drive for the best team in the sport. Both my kids have flown the nest. I don't need to start over again. I can move on, spend more time with your mother, and finally support you.
"The last two years I've seen you win two championships but I've always seen them while I've been trying to compete with my own team. You've accomplished some of the most amazing things and I could never completely enjoy them. Now I can go to your races and just be your father."
"I just don't," she sputtered, looking at the table while this time she knew the tears were rolling down her cheeks. "You were always supposed to be here."
"And I will still be here," he told her. "I'm just going to be cheering for you instead of trying to see a way to drive around you."
That made her laugh despite herself but it was a hollow laugh. Shelby left that dinner feeling like someone had ripped her heart out. There was a certain way that her world was always meant to turn and that included getting to see her father at work each week. Knowing that he was out there doing what they both loved, even if it was no longer with her. She liked that they had that brotherhood. First she cried at the thought of him leaving, then she hated Josef for his decision that had started this in the first place, and then she just wondered why this all had to happen just days after she'd been celebrating the best year of her entire life. How quickly things changed.
It was at two in the morning on Sunday that she had the fourth conversation. She reaches for her phone on the nightstand and calls Shane back. Wakes him up in Charlotte because now she knows what to say. "Dad's leaving," she chokes out, "and I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing right now."
--
Shelby Manning
Need For Speed OC
1066 words