Life Could Be a Dream

Chapter 16- The Fabulous Hudson Hornet (Part 2)

"Yeah, I think he needs a new coat of poly, man!" Ramone voiced his opinion.

"Are you sick, buddy?" Mater questioned, concerned.

"Well, you are lookin' a little peaked", Sheriff observed.

"He needs a new coat of poly for sure!" Ramone repeated.

Luigi looked blank. "Didn't Fudge once say something about Doc being a race car?"

"She has!" everyone realised, looking from Lightning to Fudge suspiciously.

Lightning stared at the five-year-old. "Fudge. You..."

"He is!" Fudge insisted, nodding.

"Thank you!" Lightning cried.

Then Fudge hesitated, glancing at the window of Doc's clinic. The Hudson Hornet was glaring at Lightning and did not look happy. The little girl remembered how serious he'd been in her not telling anybody. That's why he paid her not to tell.

So, she changed her story. "We were playing a game!"

Lightning looked confused. "What?"

"Uncle Doc and I always play this game!" Fudge went on, jumping up and down. "I told you about that game! Sometimes, he pretends to be a race car! I told you about our game! Lightning was playing with us yesterday! Because he really is a race car!"

Doc sighed with relief. Lightning looked at the little girl as if she'd completely lost it.

"Well, that makes a little more sense", Sheriff declared.

Ramone looked Lightning up and down thoughtfully. "Yeah, but I still think he needs a new coat of poly."

Sally appeared next to Lightning and allowed his tank to fill with gas.

"Hey, hey!" Sheriff protested. "What are you doin'?!"

"Papà?" Fudge whispered to her father, indicating to Lightning. "Why can't he have gas?"

"Because he can get away if he has a lot of gas", Luigi explained. "He has to stay and fix the road. So, if he has less gas, he has to stay here."

"Oh. Okay."

"It's okay, Sheriff!" Sally assured Sheriff. "You can trust me, right?"

"I trust you, all right", Sheriff replied. "It's him I'm worried about."

"Hmmm. I trust him", Sally proclaimed. "Come on, let's take a drive", she suggested to Lightning.

"A drive?" he repeated.

"Yeah. A drive. Don't you big city race cars ever just take a drive?"

"Uh... no. No we don't."

Once Lightning's tank was full, he followed Sally out of Flo's and stared in the direction of the Interstate. The landscape of the desert and winding road seemed to stretch on forever. He was staring so intently that everyone was convinced that he was going to make another escape attempt. Sheriff even had his lights on ready.

Fudge was also looking that way. The road interested her for two reasons. The first one was that, as much as she loved Radiator Springs and had never really left the town or its surrounding area in all of her life, she really wanted to see what else the world had to offer and had big dreams of travelling the world. She owned an atlas, a globe and had a map of the world on her bedroom wall, all of which fascinated the child immensely.

"One day", she'd announce determinedly, indicating to a country in the atlas or on the map or globe, "I'm gonna go there. But I'll come back", she'd be quick to assure her family. "I'd miss Radiator Springs."