A departure for me, this story features a woman race car driver—and her car, an inherited Austin-Healey.
"Catrin had loved so many things about that car. That it had been a gift from Uncle Oliver, who she'd been fonder of, to be honest, than their own father. That it was fast as greased lightning, he'd said, and the color of blue iris. That it had sailed Caribbean waters (past Puerto Rico, through the Panama Canal) on its way from Southampton to Los Angeles. That she had raced it five years in a row on the track east of Monterey and ended in fifth place two of those years, and only a few seconds slower than the winner the last year, when she was four months pregnant with Windell—the son meant to inherit Ollie, as she had christened the vintage racer with Laguna Beach champagne."
Somehow this whimsy just happened along, as intriguing narrative byways do. The story has been published in the Spring 2022 issue (Number 31) of Pinyon, the handsome national journal of poetry, prose, and art of Colorado Mesa University.
image: 1954 Austin-Healey, Classic Driver Market
