Rise Up

Chapter 28: Love Can Release the Pain

Jeddah was absolutely one of my favorite track on the calendar of this 2021 season. The layout, the atmosphere, the people, everything was great- apart from the race.

We were starting in a good position after a hard qualifying that almost destroyed all the team's energy. In other words good luck wasn't on our side.

In the first turn, a contact happened between two cars in front of me and one of them, almost crashed into me, beating my car's side. Fred kept saying that from the data everything seemed ok but for me, as the driver in that car, nothing was ok.

The car became a lot more slower, we had to change the front wing as we lost a piece due the contact. But I wasn't ok. With the small crash, my knee beat dangerously the intern side of the car and started to hurt like hell.

I asked the team to check my parameters, as I felt I was on the edge of fainting, but again everything seemed ok. I think I have also let some tears roll down my face and wet a bit the balaclava.

One of the worst pain I've ever felt.

When the race finished, I was P10 and more than happy, not only for my little point scores, but also to be finally out of the car even if I needed help to get out. A few mechanics came up to me, pulling away the seatbelts and grabbing my arms, trying an easy way to get me out. I wanted to scream as soon as I touched the ground, feeling my whole leg sore and in pain. The guys helped me, making the way to the garage after the usual post-race checks.

Once we reached the box, Fred prepared a chair for me and Mike was already there with his bag and some ice to put on it. Susanne helped me also with the helmet, pulling it back in my room while I was desperately trying to not cry in front of everyone from the team.

"I need you to get out of the suit so I can check your knee, ok? Let's go upstairs. Here, put your arm around my shoulder." Mike had to picking me up like a kid to bring me in my room, away from the media ready for some scandals and in a good place to be just in my underwear.

Without the suit, the situation was even worse of what I imagined. The bruise was getting bigger and darker with the seconds passing and of course it was still hurting.

"Ok, put the brace on and keep the ice here. We need to take you to the hospital and have a look at it, maybe also a knee."

"No, Mikey, please. No hospitals. Knowing my situation, they will keep me over a night without any good reasons and I don't want to. Let's just wait a bit, maybe it will get better. It was just the impact."

I could see on his face his huge concern, he wasn't convinced neither a bit but he knew better than me how scared I was at the idea of going back in a hospital bed. "Let's wait just one hour, not a minute more. In the meanwhile, don't move, I'm gonna call your doc."

I was left in my room alone, as Mike was calling my Italian team of surgeons and Susanne went to fix the media part of this mess, releasing a statement about my conditions. Being alone, wasn't really the best thing, my mind was racing harder than anyone back in the race.

Suddenly I heard a light knock and my door opened a bit.

"Hey Kiara, it's me, Mick. Can I enter?"

Finally a familiar face. I grabbed the towel that my trainer gave me before for my sweat and I put it on my leg, hoping it would cover not just my underwear but also part of the horrible broken leg.

"Hey, Mick, sure enter. But I advert you, I'm not in my best shape."

He opened completely the door and entered, with a big smile on his face and his big blue eyes. He sat next to me on the sofa, paying attention to not touch any part of my body, scared of hurting me in any way.