"I don't remember much about it, really," Chelsea said with a sigh. "Which really is probably a good thing. I did see it get replayed on ESPN a lot, though. Kind of disconnects you, really. You can let yourself imagine that it's someone else, not you."
Almost automatically, Chelsea's mind went back to the replay that always seemed to be running in the back of her head. And here comes Clarke in the number 45 Dodge, she's taking the turn a bit wide, but it's not... oh, and McClure's getting tight, they've swapped paint a little, he's really getting up in her and- oh God, she's going way too high, she's going to... oh, no... fans, we've got a situation here, Chelsea Clarke has gone too high and her car is coming down fast, the other drivers are getting out of her way, but it's a tough one, she's on fire and she's rolling... the crash crews are coming down to check on her and this does not look good at all for this youngster, her first Busch series race... folks, we're gonna send it to commercial, this is... this isn't good.
"It used to bother me, a little." Chelsea shrugged as she moved around and transferred herself to the end of the couch at Lisa's feet. It was funny, even though she knew Karen's real name, she would probably always be 'Lisa' in her mind. "I mean, I did all these things for TV and radio, even some little podunk documentary about the 'dangers' of racing that I was kind of tricked into. But that was years ago, and I've had a lot of therapy and support groups and good drugs..." she chuckled. "I was out for most of it, but I dunno, when it happened, I just felt... at peace, ya know? Like I knew at that moment that whatever happened, everything would be all right." Unlike New Years, of course. She'd never gotten that feeling after New Years.
"I guess the final step was on this voyage of the damned," Chelsea said, kind of motioning to the ship as a whole with her arms as she did. "Until I got here, I never, ever let anyone see my legs or my back if I could help it. I dunno, I guess breaking and unbreaking my neck kind of 'fixed' that last little barrier I had."