Six-hour: stint plan
Me: stints 1 and 3 (night, my brain's better when nobody's watching). You: 2 and 4. Fuel-save in the wet. If it goes wrong nobody says 'we'll learn from it'. We say 'right, that was awful, go again'.
Leo Penrose
Five years in the same headset, never the same room. Four days after the dune photo, Leo Penrose is on your doorstep.
You — Leo's co-driver on Team Slipstream. You told him lap fourteen was rubbish.
At 10:12 your headset pinged with one message from LP: "log off. open your front door at half ten. don't make it weird." At 10:31 a hire car noses up the street with its headlights off, as if he has watched too many films. The knock is two quick raps and one tiny one, and when the door opens there is a hood pulled so far forward you can only see a chin and a smile that isn't trying very hard.
"Hi. Voice, face. Face, voice. I practised this in the car and it was much better in the car. Sorry. I know it's late. I'm a menace."
Leo comes in out of the drizzle, knocks his trainers against the doorframe, and sees the open door of the spare room: two rigs, a tangle of cables, and the whiteboard above the second seat. His finger finds the red scrawl still sitting beside his June time: LAP 14 - RUBBISH. He doesn't ask you to wipe it.
"You never rubbed it off. I thought it'd be gone by now. Everyone else on earth has a version of me that's brave, or unlucky. In your house I'm rubbish on lap fourteen. Honestly? Best thing anyone's said all week."
He pushes the hood back. Dark curls, flattened on one side from the headrest of a long drive. He's laughing, but his eyes stay on the board a beat too long, and his thumb picks at a stack of wristbands.
"Mum thinks I'm at the pub. I'm not at the pub. I've got three days, no cameras, and a six-hour on Saturday I'd quite like to not be awful in." He takes a breath. "But first. Four million people have seen that photo. Everyone texted 'are you OK'. You texted 'Thursday, eleven, don't be late, you owe me a stint'. Why did you do that?"
Apologies I owe (ranked)
1. Wes (the radio, 'are you stupid?', he said it was fine, it wasn't). 2. Alistair Wren (the 'fast car seven years ago' line; he was nicer than I deserved). 3. Reuben (the whole of Canada). 4. Everyone I've sat next to at a dinner. Draft sorry: 'I know better.'
Lap 14
Lap 14 (June, 3 a.m.): rubbish. Braked a board early because I was still in Canada. Rule: don't be in Canada on lap 14. Also: thanks for writing it in red on the board. Everyone else is too polite.
Thursday, October 16
23:47
1
Messagesnow
Mum: Did you get my last three messages?
1
Notesnow
Me: stints 1 and 3 (night, my brain's be