A Lestappen flight
Max stopped his car on the Leclerc’s driveway the next morning shortly past 8, walking up to the door and ringing the bell.
“Hey, good morning!” Pascale said, opening the door. “Charlie is still in the bath, come in.”
“That’s okay, Penelope is in the car, though, I’ll get her quickly.” Max said, hurrying back to the car and taking out P, who was still sleeping in her carrier.
“Boop!” Arthur exclaimed to both of their surprise, poking his index finger against Penelope’s nose. Max and Pascale laughed. “Does she do anything else?” Arthur asked when the baby didn’t wake up.
“Well, most of the time she is either sleeping, eating or trying to stumble around.”
“She’s boring.” Arthur stated and sat back in his chair, eating his cereal.
“Arthur, that’s not a nice thing to say.” Pascale said to him while placing an orange juice in front of Max.
“But why have it if it doesn’t do anything!” Arthur exclaimed.
“Well, that’s one of these things that people can’t really explain. Pups don’t let you sleep, they want to be entertained all the time, they cost a lot of money, are really annoying at times, but somehow, most people still want them.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know. Not everyone wants a pup, neither did I, but then I met my mate and … we wanted to have a pup. Love makes you do weird things sometimes.” Max tried to explain to Arthur.
“Were is your mate?”
“She had to go to heaven.” Max said after a little silence.
“You think she will be there with my papa?”
“Yes, I think they are there together, waiting patiently until you are very old and very grey and are ready to come and go see your papa again.”
“Will you have a new mate?” Arthur then asked.
“Arthur, that is not a question you ask people.” Pascale said carefully.
“Why not?” Arthur asked confused.
“Because losing someone hurts. I’m sure it hurt you a lot when your dad died and … it also hurt me when my mate died. It still does, sometimes more, sometimes less. It takes time to … be able to love again. I don’t know if I will have another mate. I’m not really a person who plans to have a mate or to really search for a mate. I … if I meet someone, then maybe yes, I might have a new mate, but if I don’t or if maybe I’ll never be ready to … love someone like you should love a mate … maybe I won’t have another mate. To sum it up … I don’t know.” Max said and after thinking a little Arthur nodded.
“Will I have a new dad?” he then asked, turning to his mum, directly followed by a loud thud behind Max. Without them knowing, Charles had come down the stairs and had dropped his big suitcase on the floor, staring between his mum and Arthur, breathing quickly.
“Charles, good morning!” Pascale exclaimed. “You want some coffee?”
“I want to go.” Charles said, picking up his suitcase and almost running out the house.
“He’ll be back. Thank you for the juice, listen to your mum, Arti!” Max said with a wave and picked up Penelope, hurrying after Charles. “I’ll take care of the suitcase, please say goodbye to your mum, she deserves it.” He calmly said when he met Charles at the back of the car, almost pleading. Charles thought a second, then went back inside. Max had already stored Charles luggage, sat P into the back seat and was waiting behind the wheel when Charles came back and sat in the passenger seat.
“Thank you for waiting.” He said while they drove off the driveway.
“Of course, I told you I would pick you up.” Max said “I just wanted to say … it kind of was my fault that question came up. Arti asked about my mate and if I would have a new one someday … then he asked your mum.”
“It’s not your fault. He’s a kid, he’s … he wants to know stuff … also I think he meant more like … my mum marrying again, not really having a new dad. Although … Arti was two when he died, he barely remembers him, it’s different than with me.”
“If your mum ever has a new partner or boyfriend or whatever … she doesn’t seem like a person that would make you or Arti call him dad or something.”
“What did you say?” Charles asked after some silence.
“Huh?”
“If you would have a new mate.”
“That I don’t know.”
“She died a year ago, right? If it’s not too much to ask.”
“Almost. I’ll tell you if you ask something that I don’t want to answer.” He then said, smiling. “What about you, someone special waiting?”
“No … there was someone, but … he made me chose between Formula 1 and him.”
“Seriously? And he thought he’d win?”
“Well, I thought about it for like … an hour.”
“That’s totally fine to think about it for a couple of hours, but … I mean, he knew you were a racer already, right?”
“Yes, but I think he thought it was more of a hobby or something?”
“You’re the World Champion.”
“In Omega racing. We had twelve races a season.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re the best.”
“Thank you. Did you know in Omega Championship you’re only getting paid by prize money?” Charles then asked.
“What, seriously? Like … not even a little bit?” Max asked shocked.
“Well, not by racing itself. Most have jobs. You can get sponsors and make advertisements and stuff, but it’s not like a racing team employs you and gives you over a million just to start the car.”
“What did you do? Wait … didn’t you still go to school?”
“Yes, I did. I had a job on weekends when I wasn’t racing and during vacations. I also did some advertising for a national airline and about how omega friendly they are. They really are, just to make that clear, so if you ever do commercial within the US, AngelAir – for your flight for everyone.” He ended in a slightly airy voice.
“What job did you have? I’m just curious, because … I never really had one.” Max then said, almost a little ashamed.
“Never? Like, never never? Not even delivering newspapers or stupid things like that?” Charles screeched.
“No. My father said it was a waste of time and that I have to concentrate on racing if I don’t want to end up as a truck driver living in a shed.” Max said slowly, making Charles stare at him with an open mouth. “Yeah, he … wasn’t the most loving person, but he supported my racing in every way possible. Made me stronger in a way.”
“Well, uhm … I was working at a … bar.”
“Sounds cool.”
“The less you wear, the more tips you’ll get.” Charles said and Max looked at him. “Wasn’t always great.”
“The shit we do for racing.” Max said lowly.
“The shit we do for racing.” Charles agreed.
“Could you grab the lanyard from the glove dep? The one for the airport?” Max asked when the drove up to the private terminal entrance, taking the lanyard from Charles shortly after. He opened the gate and they stopped the car.
“You have your designated parking space?” Charles asked, sounding a little annoyed.
“It comes with the spot for the plane.” Max tried to play it down, making Charles shake his head.
“You got sunglasses?”
“Yes”
“You might want to put them on, there are paparazzi behind the barrier. They won’t come closer, but they will take pics.” Max said, grabbing his own sunglasses from the console.
The plane took off half an hour later, taking them towards Japan.
“You know … the finance guy from my management tells me I should invest in stuff … I mean invest my money, because it’s better than keeping it, he says. Do you do that?” Charles asked.
“Yes, some of it. It’s spread out, you know … not invested in one big thing, just in case something goes wrong, you don’t lose all your money, you know?”
“Not really. I feel really stupid sometimes, I … never really had money, you know.”
“There’s no shame in that. My father didn’t even earn close to what we earn today. We were … wealthy, but we weren’t swimming in money.”
“And you do that now? Swimming in money?”
“Kind of, sometimes I’m thinking it’s too much. I donate some to different charities, I have some investments in property, I have some in stocks and different papers, as well as some on saving accounts and a fund for Penelope of course, as well as one for my mum, just in case. My sister doesn’t want anything, but I insisted on helping her and her mate when they bought a house when she was pregnant with their first pup.”
“Oh, that sounds a lot.”
“Well, I’ve been doing this job for a while now … it racks up quite quickly if you don’t spend it. Just keep in mind that you don’t have to spend it on anything … it is your money, you can do with it whatever you want.”
“I already spent a chunk. I paid off my mum’s mortgage and put some aside for her and Arti, she doesn’t know that part, she would never accept it.”
“Well, those sound like really good things and things that you want to spend your money on.”
“It is. I also keep a lot on hand, I mean in my regular account. I’m kind of scared stranding somewhere without any money.” Charles said, chuckling nervously.
“Well, after the luck you had with travelling recently, I think that is pretty smart. I want you to know that you can always call me … doesn’t matter where you are or what the issue is.”
“Thank you” Charles said, looking out the window “I still hate being this dependent on others.”
“I’m not trying to tell you that I know how you feel, because I was never in that position … but I … I would hate it to always have to worry if I can get somewhere on my own or if I need to ask someone to accompany me. If there’s a time you don’t want to ask me or whatever, Lando, Pierre, Esteban, Carlos and Alex would most likely be the next ones I’d suggest, well actually most of the grid.”
“Most?”
“I don’t know what Lance is like … we’re not really friends and he’s quite hard to read. I don’t know Logan yet, he’s a rookie … but he seems like a really great person, I don’t think he’d say no to helping.”
“We talked about the U.S. a little bit the other day … he grew up very differently, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well … his uncle is rich as hell, supporting him in every way he can. They talk a lot on the phone and stuff … his parents … they don’t really get this; they don’t accept it as a real life’s purpose. They would prefer much more for him to go to college and then start working at their company now that it’s getting really successful. They try to convince him to do that in pretty much every phone call … if they call, that is. He couldn’t want anything less. They also promise to come to races but then something else is more important and the cancel on short notice, even the first F1 race.”
“But I thought they were there? Who was that family then?”
“Those were his uncle, aunt and a friend from England, he met her at the boarding school he went to.”
“That’s rough.”
“Definitely. I don’t know what I’d do if my family would have been like that … well, actually, I don’t have an uncle with money, so I’d most likely not race at all.”
“Yeah … a father in racing can give you a lot of benefits, but he also could have closed a lot of doors if he would have wanted.” Max said.
“Yeah, everything has its downside, doesn’t it?”
“Without a down, there wouldn’t be an up.” Max said with a smile.