Drag Racer

Faster than lightning, putting my life on the line every night, a blinding mixture of fame and infamy, that was my job. I was a drag racer, one of the best, and I was known around the world, from London to San Diego, to Tokyo. I love it. The adrenaline's pumping, my teeth are grinding, my heart is racing, almost as fast as the car itself. Of course, I had my losses, but none were so extreme that I lost my life. Well...

It was a race with high stakes. First place prize: $100k. I was up against some "old friends," and some famous drag racers. There was also another racer, who I had neither heard of or seen before. I didn't quite catch his name, but at that point it didn't matter, I was excited to race him. We got in our cars, and revved our engines, a common thing, as a form of intimidation. A man in a striped suit, a referee's uniform, stepped out on a platform above the road. Laughing to myself, as others probably were, at the unorthodox arrangement, he dropped a checkered flag and we took off. We had to complete five laps, something else I wasn't used to. I had gone four laps and was tied with that unknown racer.

We were right up by each other, traveling at breakneck speed. He got on the inside, by pulling round behind me and speeding up, and we rounded a sharp corner. He rammed me on the side, and I almost hit the railing, and when he did that again, I flew through the rail and it went all downhill from there. I was surer than I've been about anything that I was going to die then. But I didn't.

I woke up in a hospital, the entire lower half of my body in a large cast, kinda reminding me of a mummy. After a day or two of drowsiness and a little pain, my doctor entered the room, pleased to see me, and he looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't tell who he was.

"Well son, I see that from one of your lumbar vertebrae down, your bones are shattered, and your left arm," tapping my arm, "is paralyzed."

Now I realized that my left arm is paralyzed. And as he leaned closer, I also realized who he was, that unknown racer

"I see you're in pain, it seems," he whispered in my ear, "This special sedative will help ease that pain of yours."

He injected the needle into my arm and one moment I felt intense pain coursing throughout my body, the next I was completely numb.

"And one other thing, thanks for taking my place."