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Roy was what
you would call, the son of a typical 'cowboy'. He lived with his parents
and younger sister on their ranch two miles north of Dallas, in Texas.
Their land was dotted with the most magnificent chestnut coloured horses
and chalk white sheep. Roy had been born and brought up on this ranch,
and now fourteen and a half years later, he still loved it. He loved being
around the horses, feeding them, grooming their manes, and tidying their
tails.
Everyday, he would get up at four o'clock, get ready and go outside to
feed the horses. He usually left for school at about seven o'clock even
though school only started at nine, because it took him two hours to get
there. Roy was a good student academically; he got good grades, and was
good at sports as well.
He considered his life to be perfect well nearly, as there was only one
thing missing. He had always wanted to be racecar driver, like Michael
Schumacher, and watch the Grand Prix, live but in his town, no one was
really interested in this and they didn't know much about it.
It all began when his seventeen-year-old cousin, Steve had come down from
Canada, a few years ago. Steve was crazy about racing, and had brought
many posters, books and magazines to show Roy. Soon, Roy became a racing
fanatic as well, but after Steve left, there was no one to talk to about
racing and they didn't have a computer at home through which Roy could
surf the Internet and learn more about his passion. There was only one
town library, where the librarian didn't even know that something called
the 'Grand Prix' existed and at home his parents did not know about driving
anything else except for a ranch tractor! The only time that Roy ever
got to learn a bit about his passion was on television every Sunday because
that is when the world sports news was on, for exactly three and a half
minutes.
Roy and his sister Emma had always been told by their parents about how
dangerous the machines on the ranch could be and ever since they had been
little, they were told to stay away from them. One day, Roy was very frustrated
as there had been nothing about Formula 1 racing on television all week
and he was now desperate to drive a racer car even though he didn't know
how to drive a normal car. His parents had gone out for a lunch meeting
to the town Community center and Emma was at her friend's house working
on a school project, so he was basically home alone. He was getting really
bored, so he decided to go outside and check on the horses. Once he reached
the stables, he saw that the tractor was parked right outside the door
and that he wouldn't be able to enter the stables. At first, the idea
of driving the tractor to clear the entrance, scared him a bit, but then
he pictured Michael Schumacher racing away in his Ferrari. If Michael
Schumacher could race on a Ferrari, he was sure that he could drive his
tractor a few yards away. So, he got into the tractor, turned the engine
on and started driving it. After a few seconds he though to himself, 'hey…this
isn't that scary,' so he went faster and faster. Soon, the tractor was
out of his control and it went BAM! Straight into a tree.
The next time Roy awoke, he found himself on a hospital bed, with his
hand in a sling and his face completely covered in bandages. He later
learned that during the accident, his face had hit the wheel of the tractor
and in the process got severely cut. His hand too, had got stuck in the
door and had a fracture. After, the accident, Roy realized that it had
been very careless of him to drive the tractor so fast. He decided that
he would always listen to his parents as they had more experience with
life.
Roy was discharged from hospital in a few days. It was his birthday the
following week, but his father gave him his birthday present in advance.
It was a white envelope, with some papers in it. As Roy, read the papers
his face began to glow! Each member of the community center was pooling
in fifty dollars, so that they could buy Roy a ticket to go and watch
the Grand Prix, in Monte Carlo! They felt bad for him and this would hopefully
make Roy happy and would make him realize that driving was only for adults.
Avanti Birla
IX - C
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