Asher ✓

55 | comeback

JANUARY 10,  2020 / NEW ERA FIELD

Asher cleared a triple jump with an eighty foot leap that sent shock-waves rippling through his bones when he landed.

He barely had time to shake off the juddering pain in his spine and un-clench his jaw before the high-powered whine of a competitor's engine sounded from behind him.

"Shit," Asher swore in frustration, pulling tightly towards the inside of the track to secure the path of least distance.

He'd forgotten how cutthroat the American Motocross Association Series heats were. Everyone was vying for those coveted positions in the city-wide, then state-wide, then national, competition. As such, the racers were pushing all imaginable boundaries. 

They rounded corners at speeds so high that their knees almost scraped the man-made dirt track, incredibly banked as their motorcycles were. All the double and triple jumps were just high enough to the clear the last mound, sacrificing as little horizontal distance as possible, but low enough each time to have the audience holding their breath to see if the rider would land the perilous leap.

That was the sort of jump Asher had just attempted and executed.

Behind him now was Number 34, and she rode like a viper. If Asher wasn't diligent in preempting her manoeuvres, she'd find the smallest of reliefs and slither ahead of him.

Which wasn't happening today.

Number 34, like nearly half of the riders at the first AMA Series heat, was a rookie. Asher couldn't believe how little he recognised the competitors, crew and even the commentators — secretly he'd always admired one of the sport announcers whose voices boomed over the stadium, but he was nowhere to be heard, and a pitchy, contentious man had taken his place.

"Asher Delrov, keeping a firm hold on his leading position," the presenter whined. "Some of the audience remembers the young fan favourite from the 2015 250cc class series—"

Said portion of the audience erupted into cheers.

"—but everyone remembers the horrific incident he encountered four years ago."

Yes, Asher really hated this new commentator.

Yesterday, January 9, was the anniversary of the 'horrific incident,' in fact.

Four years ago on that day, he'd been lying twisted and bleeding on an icy road in New York. Asher had come to realise that that was only the first time he'd nearly died. When his mental health had taken a turn for the worse, then, Asher had nearly died multiple times in the years to follow.

Counselling had helped, and counselling had made him realise he'd been fighting the odds and winning (or, at least, not losing) every day of his life. What was one more day? One more race?

Four years ago he'd been thrown off his bike, and yesterday he had gotten back on, spending the day — just like so many other days this winter — training for his comeback.

 "Delrov's old sponsors dumped him like a bag of fresh diapers—" the presenter's voice boomed into the stadium, "—after discovering his pre-existing medical condition, but it seems he's back with new support, and new gear as well."