Chapter 12- Ferraris, Customers and a Lot of Trouble
"Grazie, Fudge!" Luigi thanked his daughter as he took some tyres from her. "You have been a very big help, baby."
Fudge smiled broadly. "Really?!" She had wanted to help her fathers get all of the tyres back that had gone all over town the night before and put them back where they belonged. It always made her happy when she was told she'd done a good job.
Luigi returned the smile, nodding. "Yes." He gave her a kiss. "Why don't you go and play now? But be careful. The road is not safe."
She nodded. "Okay!" She ran inside and retrieved her soccer ball. The ball was yellow with a blue ring around it and a red star.
Fudge knew not to play soccer in the street anyway, so the road not being safe didn't have much of an impact on her. Occasionally, she would have to cross the street partway (carefully) to get her ball when it rolled away from her.
Soon, she decided to go over to the delinquent road hazard, who was reluctantly pulling Bessie, the road paving machine, down Main Street and ignoring Mater rambling on about anything and everything.
It had been a few hours since Doc's decision had been reached. The race car had been introduced to Bessie, but when Mater removed his parking boot to hook him up, he was out of there. He tore out of town, eager to pretend that it had all been a bad dream. However, he had no idea that Sheriff had siphoned his gas the night before. So, he ran out and, unfortunately for him, his escape attempt had failed miserably. Mater had to tow him back to Bessie against his will. However, Fudge missed all of that. She'd been busy getting cleaned up from her accident.
Now, looking around at the town, this guy was the only thing out of the ordinary. Sarge, Sheriff and Fillmore were at Flo's. Red was watering the flowers outside Casa Della Tires. Luigi and Guido were arguing over the placement of the tyre displays.
"Hi!" Fudge called to the race car cheerfully.
"What do you want, Fudge?"
"Just saying hi."
"Okay, hi. Now, leave me alone."
"Hi, Mater!" Fudge jumped up and down.
"Howdy, Fudge!" the tow truck returned her greeting.
"I got my ball!" She held it up. "Wanna play?"
"Sure!" he agreed.
"You ready?" Fudge dropped the ball on the ground and kicked it to him.
"You know, I used to be a purty good whistler", Mater informed the race car as he and Fudge kicked the ball back and forth. "I can't do it now, of course, on account of sometimes, I get fluid built up in my engine block, but Doc said he's gonna fix it. Oh, he can fix jus' 'bout anythin'. That's why we made him the judge. Boy, you shoulda heard me on 'Giddy-up, Oom Papa Mow-Mow'. Now, I'm not one to brag, but people come purty far to see me get low on the Mow-Mow."
Fudge had also been talking to the mysterious newcomer. She'd just been quoting stuff she'd heard on TV and movies that made absolutely no sense and he couldn't help but wonder if she was insane.
The racer was ignoring both of them, but got some of the tarmac from Bessie splashed all over his lightning bolt sticker.
"Oh, man!" he groaned. "That's just great!"
"Hey, what's wrong?" Mater questioned, abandoning his game with Fudge to talk to him.
"My lucky sticker's all dirty!" he complained.
"Aw, that ain't nothin'!" Mater assured him. "I'll clean it for ya!" He began to snort, ready to spit on it, making Fudge giggle.
"No, no, no!" the delinquent road hazard exclaimed hurriedly. "That won't be necessary!" He noticed Red watering the flowers and called out to him. "Hey! Hey, big fella!" Red looked over. "Yeah, you in the red! I could use a little hose-down, help me wash this off!"
A very nervous and afraid Red clutched his precious flowers, growing in a tyre, and reversed off with them.
"Where's he going?" the red car questioned.
"Oh, he's just a little bit shy", Mater explained, "and he hates you for killin' his flowers."
"He doesn't like you!" Fudge sang.
"I shouldn't have to put up with this!" he exclaimed. "I'm a precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics!"
Mater and Fudge glanced at each other, confused. Neither of them understood anything he'd just said. "You hurt your what?" Mater asked.
"I'M A VERY FAMOUS RACE CAR!" the car exploded.
That attracted the attention of Luigi and Guido.
"You are a famous race car?!" Luigi gasped. "A real race car?!"
"Yes, I'm a real race car!" he snapped, annoyed. "What do you think? Look at me!"
"I have followed racing my entire life! My whole life!" Luigi declared, he and Guido beginning to get excited.
"Then you know who I am!" he exclaimed. "I'm Lightning McQueen!"
"Lightning McQueen?!" Luigi echoed ecstatically.
"Yes!" Lightning McQueen sounded happy and relieved. "Yes!"
"I must scream it to the world!" Luigi shouted. "My excitement from the top of someplace very high!" He took a breath. "Do you know many Ferraris?"
"Ferraris!" Fudge cried, grinning like crazy as she danced around. "I like Ferraris!"
Luigi smiled. "Yes you do." He gave his daughter a kiss.
"We watch the Ferrari races on TV, don't we?" Fudge went on.
"Yes we do." He gave her another kiss before turning back to Lightning. "Do you? Do you know many Ferraris?"
"No, no, no!" Lightning replied to Luigi's question. "They race in the European Circuit! I'm in the Piston Cup!"
He noticed that the two Italians no longer looked impressed.
"What?" he asked.
"Luigi follow only the Ferraris", the Fiat informed him, rolling off back to his store. Guido followed. "Fudge, stay away from him!" Luigi added.
Lightning sighed, feeling like he'd just blown his last chance to impress anybody around the town he was now stuck in.
"Lightning McQueen?" Fudge repeated. "Is that your name?"
"Yeah", he responded, sounding fed up with her. "It is!"
"That's a nice name", Fudge admitted.
"Yeah!" he scoffed. "Better than Fudge!"
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Is that what I think it is?!" came Flo's voice a couple of seconds later.
Sally looked in the same direction as the show car. "Customers?!" she gasped before shouting out, so everyone could hear. "Customers! Customers, everyone! Customers!"
A buzz of excitement went through the town, though they were eager to forget about the last time they thought they had a customer (Sally was relieved that it wasn't the same cars!). Fudge, however, was nervous. She'd only ever met new people on three occasions before. First was Sally and that was great. Second was the social workers and that kind of traumatised her. Third was Lightning and...
"Okay! All right, everybody, calm down!" Sally instructed. "It's been a long time! Just remember what we rehearsed! Make sure your 'Open, please come in' signs are out and you all know what to do! All right! Nobody panics! Here we go!"
Lightning turned to Fudge, who was the only one who hadn't run off to get ready for the customers. (Heck, what could she have done? She didn't have a store or business. What could they want from her?) "What's the big deal over one customer?" he wondered.
Fudge shrugged, dribbling her soccer ball around him. "We never get new people here", she explained. "Last time we had a new person around here was-"
"Me?!" Lightning cut her off, rolling his eyes.
"Well, first there was me and my mom, but now, it's just me. Then Sally. Then there were these mean people who were trying to-"
"Hey, kid?"
"What?"
"Shut up."
Unfortunately, all the potential customers (two minivans- a lilac female and a dark green male) wanted was directions to the Interstate. Despite the townsfolk's efforts, they didn't accept any of the offers they were given. In fact, in all honesty, the harder they tried, the more they ended up creeping the minivans out and they were eager to get away as fast as they could. And as far away from Radiator Springs as they could.
"Psst!" Lightning called to them as they drove past on their way out of town (while Fudge looked sad that they weren't staying; maybe they could've been the ones to help her stay!). "Hey! Hey, hey, hey! I know how to get to the Interstate!"
The lilac one stopped. "Oh, do ya?"
"Minny, no." The green one, presumably her husband, also stopped.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!" A pause. "No. Not really. But listen! I'm Lightning McQueen, the famous race car! I'm being held here against my will! And I need you to call my team, so they can come rescue me! And get me to California in time for me to win the Piston Cup! Do you understand?"
The two cars were giving him fake smiles and they locked their doors before driving off down the road.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No, it's the truth!" he yelled after them, desperate for them to help him. "I'm telling you! You gotta help me! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! I'M IN HILLBILLY HELL! MY IQ'S DROPPING BY THE SECOND! I'M BECOMING ONE OF THEM!"
"What's so bad about being one of us?" Fudge wondered. She was both offended and curious.
"You wouldn't understand!" Lightning snapped at her. "You're just a baby!"
"I'm not a baby!" Fudge shot back. "I'm five!" She held up five fingers.
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever!" He wasn't in the mood for arguing.
I'm a big girl!" Fudge insisted. "Papà said so!"
Lightning rolled his eyes again. "Good for you!"
"You know, Doc wouldn't have let you leave", Fudge informed him.
"Oh yeah?!" Lightning retorted. "Why not?!"
"He said you can't leave till you fix the road", she reminded the race car. "And you have to do a punishment when you get one. Like one time, I went out with Mater past my bedtime and I had to go to bed at six o'clock every night for a week."
"That's a great story!" he mumbled sarcastically. "I felt like I was there!"
The little girl ignored him. "You have to fix the road!" she repeated. "If you left before you did, you'd be in very big trouble!"
"With who?"
"With Uncle Doc! And Aunt Sally and everyone else! Aunt Sally wanted you to fix the road and Uncle Doc said-"
Lightning groaned and rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time. "Does this kid ever shut up?!" he muttered to himself.
"I heard that!" Fudge called.
"What do you know?!" Lightning retorted. "You don't understand anything!"
Fudge laughed. "You're really stupid!"
Lightning had had it. Why was he, the Lightning McQueen, letting a five-year-old of all people get away with talking to him like that?! "Get lost!"
He pushed her. Hard. He meant to push her hard, but still not as hard as he did. Fudge stumbled backwards from the force of the shove. She tripped over the soccer ball, which was lying on the ground not too far away. The child smashed her head up against one of the brick walls of an abandoned store before landing on the ground hard on her backside.
Immediately, Lightning cringed at the sight of the blood as Fudge started screaming and crying. Not that he really cared about what he'd just done. He just didn't like blood and the loud screaming was just annoying to him.
"I HATE YOU!" she screeched at the top of her lungs. "I HATE YOU!"
Things got worse for Lightning when Fudge's racket attracted the attention of the others. They had all been gathered in the middle of town, disappointed that the minivans hadn't become customers, when they heard Fudge and all of them came rushing over. Doc was the only one not there. Everyone else was crowded around the five-year-old.
Great! Lightning thought. Now, they're all gonna be even more pissed!
Luigi picked her up immediately. "Fudgie!" he exclaimed as he, too, cringed, when he saw the blood. "What happened, baby?!"
Sally was the first to notice the blood that was staining the brick wall. "Oh, Fudgie! Did you hit your head on the wall?!" she asked sympathetically, gesturing to it.
"Ouch!" The others winced in sympathy.
Fudge nodded and pointed an accusing finger at Lightning. "He pushed me!"
"What?!" everyone gasped, glaring at the stock car.
"I... I didn't mean to-" he began.
Nobody was listening to him. They'd returned their attention to Fudge.
"Oh, man!" Ramone shouted, getting a proper look at her. "That doesn't look too good!"
None of them had ever seen so much blood before. It was gushing out of her head and dripping onto her shorts and T-shirt. Luigi, Guido, Red and Fillmore all looked just about ready to pass out just at the sight of it.
"Does it hurt?" Mater questioned, trying to be helpful.
Fudge nodded. "Papà?" she whimpered, clinging to the yellow Fiat. "Am I gonna die?"
Inwardly, everyone sighed. They thought Fudge was done with this.
"Of course not, stupid!" Lightning yelled at her. "You're fine, you big baby!"
"Thank you!" Sally called to him in a tone that told him to stay out of the conversation.
"No, no, no, no!" Luigi and Guido assured her hurriedly and gently. Guido kissed the top of her head (not where it was bleeding, of course).
"It's okay, honey!" Flo added. "We're all here! We're gonna take care of you!"
Sarge turned to Flo. "Flo, you got washcloths in the café, right?" She nodded. "Go and get a damp one for Fudge."
"Can do!" The former show car sped off.
"And someone, let Doc know what happened!" Sally added.
"I'll do it, man!" Fillmore offered as he, too, hurried off.
Everyone else stayed behind to comfort the poor little girl.
Flo returned before Fillmore did and she had the damp washcloth. Guido took it from her, attempting to be both gentle and firm as he pressed it against his daughter's head where it was bleeding.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Fudge shrieked, scrunching up her face in pain.
"(Does it sting?)" Guido questioned.
Fudge nodded. "Y- yeah... Yeah", she stammered. She cried harder.
"Okay!" Guido whispered soothingly. "Okay!"
"My poor baby!" Luigi cried.
"It's all right, soldier", Sarge assured her soothingly. "It's all right. Fillmore's getting Doc. He's gonna take care of that for you. You're gonna be okay."
"Where else does it hurt, sweetie?" Sally wanted to know.
"Here." Fudge showed them her right arm. "And here." She then lifted up her yellow T-shirt to show them her back. Both her arm and back had lots of scrapes and a couple of bruises up and down them. It looked painful, but not too bad.
Sally glared at Lightning again. "How could you?!" she demanded, sounding appalled.
"Hey! It's not my fault! I just pushed her!" he protested. "She was the klutz who tripped over the ball and-"
"So, you did push her?!" Sally gasped.
"Well, yeah, but-"
"I hate him!" Fudge announced decisively. "I can't wait till he's gone!"
"I'd be gone already if it wasn't for her!" Lightning countered, gesturing to Sally accusingly. "I wanna get out of here more than you want me gone! So, if you want someone to blame for me being here, how about you-"
"All right!" Doc's voice boomed throughout the town as he rolled up with Fillmore right behind. He did not sound happy. Fillmore had obviously told him the whole story. The citizens of Radiator Springs all parted to let Doc through to Fudge, who was still being held by Luigi. "Let's see what the damage is."
Guido was still stood by Fudge, but he had moved out of the way a little bit to let Doc get a better look and had moved the washcloth from her head.
"It hurts!" Fudge sobbed. "It hurts!"
"It is okay!" Luigi soothed her. "It is okay!"
"What happened?" Doc asked the five-year-old, softening immediately. Even though Fillmore had told him, he wanted to hear the whole story and he wanted to hear it from Fudge. Especially since Fillmore had admitted that he didn't actually see what had happened.
It wasn't easy while she was crying, but Fudge managed to recount the whole story to Doc. From when the would-be customers left to that moment.
"Let me see, Fudge-O", Doc requested again, smoothing some of her brown hair out of the way to get a better look.
"Don't touch it!" she squealed hysterically.
"I'm not gonna touch it", Doc promised her soothingly. "I just wanna look..." He examined the large cut where the blood was coming from.
"Is it bad?" Sheriff wanted to know.
"Yeah..." Doc replied after a pause. "That's gonna need stitches." He wasn't looking forward to that. Giving Fudge her shots was bad enough. Giving her stitches was another story.
"My poor baby!" Luigi repeated.
"But", Doc rushed on, "even so, it looks worse than it is. I shouldn't have any problems stitchin' that up." If Fudge behaves, that is, he thought to himself. He checked her over to see if there were any other injuries on her. "She's a little scraped up too", he reported, indicating to her back and arm. "I'll take care of that too, but let's worry about her head first. That's the worst of it."
"Is it bad?" Fudge echoed Sheriff's question.
"You're gonna be fine", Sarge answered. "Doc's gonna take care of that. It may hurt a little, but you can be strong, can't you, soldier?"
Fudge nodded. "Yeah."
Sarge smiled at her. "Yeah. We know you can."
Doc turned to Luigi, Guido and Fudge. "You three are with me. You", he added, glaring at Lightning (and if looks could kill, the self-centred race car would've been dead and buried), "you keep workin'!" Then he really let the guy have it. "You know, considerin' what happened, this", he pointed to the blood on Fudge's head, "could've been a whole lot worse! You're just lucky it wasn't!"
Guido and Luigi, with Fudge still on his hood, followed Doc over to the clinic while Lightning got back to work on the road, albeit slowly.
"All right, kiddo", Doc began gently, "you've been very good so far. Now, I just got a little more to do..."
Fudge screamed like she was being tortured (everyone in town, even Lightning, could hear her, though he was the only one who took no pity on her) and tried to kick her legs madly, but Luigi held her ankles firm.
"It is okay!" the yellow Fiat assured her soothingly. "Papà and Babbo are here!"
"You're all right... you're all right..." Doc added.
"NO!" Fudge screeched. "NO!"
"I know, Fudge", Luigi whispered softly. "I know it hurts."
"Almost done", Doc promised her. "Almost done. Just hold still for me, Fudge. Hold still... hold still... That's it! Good girl!"
"You are so brave, Fudge!" Luigi declared.
Guido smiled at her sympathetically. He had the important job of holding Fudge's head still. His forks were cupping her chin as he held her still. At a loss for words, the little forklift just gave her a kiss. Fudge stared up at him, her big blue eyes filled with tears.
"Fudge, hold still", Doc instructed.
"I can't!" she wailed. "It hurts!"
"Well, I'm almost done", he assured her.
"Good girl." Luigi gave her a sympathetic rub on the foot.
"(Good girl)", Guido echoed.
"All right... That's it, Fudge!" Doc announced a few minutes later. "I'm done!"
Fudge opened her eyes. "Is it over?"
"Si." Guido kissed her again.
"Now, let's just wash your arm and your back. They're scraped up. See?" He showed her.
"Good girl", Luigi whispered soothingly throughout this task. "Good girl."
"It hurts!" she wailed. "My head still hurts!"
"I know it hurts", Doc responded. "You're bein' very good. Very brave."
"She is very brave", Luigi agreed.
"There you go, Fudge-O", Doc announced when he was finished washing her cuts. "That's it. I'll remove the stitches in a couple days. It'll be itchy there for a while, but don't scratch, all right? You might pull the stitches out and that won't be good."
She nodded, sniffling. "Okay."
"Grazie", Luigi added.
"Grazie", Guido echoed.
"And I think I got somethin' for you, Fudge, since you've been so good." Doc produced a lollipop.
Fudge took it from him. "Thank you."
"Good girl." Luigi kissed her.
"Now", Doc announced, "you're free to go."
So, the two Italians and their daughter left the clinic. Fudge was still crying and everyone was angrier at Lightning after what he'd done to her. Little did they know, he was about to shock them yet again.
"I'm done!" he announced, referring to the road. The entire town except Mater and Doc were gathered at one end of town (they'd all been crowded around Luigi and Fudge, eager to find out how the latter was) and were all staring at him in disbelief. "Look, I'm finished! Just say thank you and I'll be on my way! That's all you gotta say."
Was he serious? The road looked terrible! Any idiot could see that! The asphalt was completely uneven, making it extremely bumpy, which Mater soon found out.
"Whee-hoo!" he cheered gleefully. "I'm the first one on the new road!" He rolled across it, vibrating like crazy, various bits of metal flying off him. "It rides purty smooth!"
"Even I could do a better job than that!" Fudge declared, sniffling. She hadn't quite stopped crying yet.
"It looks awful!" Sally exclaimed.
"Well, it matches the rest of the town!" Lightning sneered.
Sally gasped. Red burst into tears and sped off.
"Red!" Sally called after him, but he didn't stop, knocking over a stack of tyres on his way past the impound.
Fudge spat on Lightning.
"Oh, ew!" he shouted as the saliva hit his windshield. "That's disgusting! Do you want me to push you into another wall?!"
"No, Fudgie!" Luigi scolded her. "We don't spit on people!"
"Not even if they're a big poo head?" she hiccupped.
Luigi tried not to laugh as he replied with, "Not even then."
Fudge slapped herself across the face, surprising Lightning. "Unga!" she shouted. "Unga!"
"No, no, no, no!" Luigi stopped her hurriedly. "You don't have to do that! Just don't spit, okay? It is not nice."
Fudge nodded, pouting. "Okay."
By that point, Sally seemed to recover from her shock and glared at Lightning.
"Who do you think you are?!" she demanded.
"Look", he answered, "Doc said when I finish, I could go! That was the deal!"
"The deal was you fixed the road!" Doc piped up, approaching from behind Lightning. "Not make it worse! You're already on thin ice after what you did to Fudge", he reminded him. "Now, scrape it off! Start over again!"
"Hey, look, Grandpa", Lightning retorted, "I'm not a bulldozer. I'm a race car."
"Oh, ho, ho!" Doc teased. "Is that right? Well, then, why don't we just have a little race? Me and you?"
Nobody could believe Doc had just suggested that.
"What?" Sally voiced everyone's surprise.
Lightning laughed. "Me and you?!" he repeated. "Is that a joke?"
"If you win, you go and I fix the road", Doc informed him. "If I win, you do the road my way."
"Doc, what are you doin'?" Sheriff questioned.
"No, Fudge, you have to leave your stitches alone", Luigi interrupted the conversation. (Fudge had been scratching.)
"I don't mean to be rude here, Doc", Lightning scoffed, "but you probably go zero to sixty in, like, what? Three point five years? At least give me a challenge! Why don't I race Fudge?!"
"Well, then, I reckon you ain't got nothin' to worry about", Doc responded.
"You know what, old timer? That's a wonderful idea. Let's race!"
"Go, Uncle Doc!" Fudge yelled.
"Okay, Fudgie", Luigi announced. "Let's get you cleaned up first. You are still covered in blood."
"Hold on, Fudge!" Doc called after them. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Okay!" Fudge leapt off Luigi's hood and onto Doc's.
Doc led Fudge away from the rest of the group.
"Listen to me, Fudge", he began, "this is very important. I don't want you talkin' about how I was a race car, all right?"
"But why?" Fudge wondered.
"I don't want everyone knowin' about that", he explained.
"But why?" Fudge repeated.
"Because I don't, all right?"
Fudge shrugged. "Okay..."
"Good girl."
"I still want you to win."
"Well", Doc smirked at her, "you're just gonna have to wait and see."
Well, that's another chapter done. I based some of the weird stuff Fudge does off of stuff I did when I was younger. I was a weird child. And now, I'm a weird adult, so it's all okay. And poor Fudge. She really hates Lightning now. Did you still like the chapter?