Speed Racer Fan Fiction ❯ Wheels and Raspberries ❯ Chapter One: The Phone Call ( Chapter 1 )

Wheels And Raspberries

Chapter 1: The Phone Call

 

The Racer family was having a quiet morning sharing breakfast at the table. Spritle looked like he came out of a horror movie with his hair basically standing on end. Pops was having his usual morning cigar with the sports section in hand; Mom was fixing up the toast for her son, Speed.

“Aw Mom, you didn't have to do that…” Speed said watching his mom spread butter on his toast.

“It's ok, Speed. I don't mind, who knows how much longer I'll get to do this for you?” Mom said smiling. Speed really didn't mind Mom's extra doting, but he was really wandering why she would say something like that.

“Spritle, when you're done, I need you and Pops to get dressed and go to the barber to take care of that hair of yours...”

“Aw Mom…” Spritle said in detest. He began pushing his hair down to his head to make it look like he really didn't need a haircut.

“Honey it's the weekend, can't it wait until Monday?” Pops said with just as much detest. Mom shot a cold look that said Do it or else… Speed gave a light chuckle as he watched this little drama unfold.

The phone rang. There was a still silence for the first two rings before Pops finally got up to answer the phone. “Who could it be this early in the morning?” he grumbled just before picking up the receiver. “Hello?” he said in his usual husky voice. The family watched as there seemed to be a very serious conversation between him and the other end of the line. Pops's face grew hard and sad as he continued talking with the other end.

“Who do you think he's talking to, Speed?” Spritle asked

“I don't know, but it sounds serious…” he replied; his egg slipped off his fork with the yolk spitting in Spritle's face.

“Oh crap, I'm sorry Spritle!” Speed said grabbing a napkin.

“What'd I do to get egg on my face!?” Spritle yelped trying to wipe the egg from his eye.

“I said I was sorry!” Speed said trying to pipe him down. Mom brought a finger up to her mouth to hush her fidgety sons. She watched as Pops hung up the phone with a very sad look on his face.

“Honey, is…everything alright?” Mom asked approaching him. He looked up with a little tear in his eye.

“It's my brother…”

“Albert?” Mom replied. Speed and Spritle then stood very still.

“Yeah, he's losing his battle with cancer…his doctor said he doesn't have more than 3 months to live,”

“Oh honey…I'm so sorry…” Mom sympathized in near whisper. She came up to comfort him while trying to pick her own heart up from the floor. “Oh dear,” she continued. “Well, should we start heading up north for a visit?”

“No…that wouldn't be a good idea right now,” he replied. Mom gave him a puzzled look. “Honey, do you remember Roselyn?”

“Oh, his little girl? The last time I saw her she was a little toddler,” Mom said recalling a tiny tot with beautiful purple-red hair. “She had the most gorgeous red hair and it was so thick on her head. Albert even used to call her his little Raspberry because of her hair,”

“Well she's only a couple of years younger than Speed, so she's not a tiny tot anymore…”

“Well I knew that…” Mom said sarcastically, but seeing Pops continuing to stare at the phone made her change her harsh tune. “Um, so...what about her?”

“My brother asked us if we could please accept her into our family, since…she'll be alone,” Pops replied. “If I know my brother, Albert doesn't want her to live alone, he wants her to be with family and love…”

“I understand, Honey. ” Mom said already accepting the idea.

“I'm not sure, though. Do we have enough room for another?” Pops said trying to outweigh any flaws with this new situation.

“Oh Honey, of course we do! We'll put her up in Speed's room,” Mom said cheerfully trying to pick up Pops's sad mood.

“With a boy?” he asked finally breaking the trance the phone had on him. Mom looked at him like he was crazy.

“Honey, in case you forgot. The only female in this house is me, and I doubt that you want her to be in our room!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot. For some reason I put Trixie in that equation somewhere,” Pops lightly chuckled rubbing his head. Speed's cheeks were turning red. In spite of the tension in the air, he couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if Trixie stayed in his room.

“Oh, I don't blame you, Honey. Her and Sparky are practically our children, too,” Mom replied giggling. “Well Speed, I'm sure you heard. Clean your room and shift your bed to make room for another. Your cousin is coming to stay!” she said turning to see Speed with a red face.

“Huh…Oh ok, Mom!” said Speed snapping out of his little reverie.

“Speed, you're blushing, are you ok?” Mom asked.

“Uh, yeah…I'm ok. I'm just going to go clean my room like you asked…” Speed said trying to make a quick get away.

“So when are we expecting the new Racer?” Mom said after watching Speed take off to his room without finishing his breakfast. Spritle pulled Speed's plate closer to his in a sneaky fashion. But Chim Chim who was under the table began picking at Speed's plate first.

“He said tomorrow morning is the latest…” Pops said with his head down expecting a yell of shock from his wife.

“Tomorrow morning?” squeaked Mrs. Racer. “Honey, we don't even have an extra bed for her to sleep in,” she continued with worry.

“She can have the air mattress until we get her a bed. I'm sure she won't mind…”

“Oh I hope so…” Mom said. She then began to fumble with things around the house as she always did when she was expecting company. Pops decided to retire to his favorite place in the house, the garage.

The excitement seemed to pour over the arrival Roselyn, more commonly known as Raspberry. It's been at least 17 years since Pops or Mom had seen her. However, Pops just couldn't get over the fact that his little brother was actually dying. Albert told him that he would phone again the next day to let them know when they could visit…for the last time.

He moved over to a shelf that had all sorts of books on cars and parts, one of them was a photo album. Pops reminisced over the stills of great times in his family. He began to choke up with tears when he saw the pictures of him and his little brother as children.

After a long while, Mom poked her head in on her husband since she hadn't seen him since earlier that morning. “Honey, you doin' ok?” she asked softly.

Pops quickly shut the photo album and tried to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Yeah, I'll be fine…” he whispered, she barely heard him.

“Honey, I'm really sorry about Albert. And I wanted to come in earlier, but I felt that you might've wanted some time alone with your thoughts,” she replied coming in to rub his back.

“It's ok, dear. You know I always hoped that I would be the first to leave for heaven before him, you know because he was younger. I even told him when we were kids that I'd even come back to tell him what it was like,” he said trying to laugh through tears. Mom's eyes began to fill up as well. “He was always so sick. My parents paid more attention to him because of his many illnesses, which at even at my age I could understand, but I still felt real lonely. So the best thing I could do was be with him in his room when he was sick and just on and on about cars and racing,” he continued as Mom smiled hearing his memories.

“And the half of the year that he actually wasn't sick, Father would always take us to the races and have the time of our lives. We were so close it was more like he was my very best friend than a brother. And of course we got into our sibling rivalries, but it was always forgotten when Father took us to the track. I think it was our love for racing that kept us together for so long,”

“Oh yes, and I just love the story of the romance between him and Rose. Though he was in a hospital or sick bed for nearly half a year, she still loved him dearly and came to visit him often,” Mom said.

“He was a good man, that's what she loved about him. Everytime she came to see him, He always had a rose to give her saying “Each and everytime I see one, I'm reminded of your beauty,” or something like that. It was almost as if we were watching a love story between two angels,” Pops smiled. He turned the pages in the photo album to the pictures of a happy Albert and his Rose. Mom and Pops looked at the picture for a little bit remembering their love story.

Rose had loved Albert so much that she had agreed to bear his child through artificial insemination using his DNA. A child they called Roselyn Oleander Racer, but Albert couldn't help calling her Raspberry because of her luscious purple-red hair and copper-toned skin; both inherited from her mother. The three things she managed to inherit from her father were his eyes, smile, and his great love for racing. (As anyone in the Racer family would have, of course!)

Pops sighed as he broke the silence, “And when Rose had been murdered he couldn't stand living here anymore, so he packed him and the baby up and moved far up north making it hard for us to visit him. But I called to make sure he and the baby were okay just about every month,”

“You know what?” Mom asked. “I think it was Raspberry that kept him from getting as sick as he usually did. Did you notice after she was born he spent less and less time in his sick bed?”

“I think you're right, but I don't think it's working so well now…” Pops replied.

“Perhaps because she's getting to the point where she doesn't need his care anymore…”

“Who knows, all I know is that he asked me to keep her around Racer family and Racer love…that's exactly what I intend to do,”

 

Meanwhile, Speed was in his room (making room) trying to remember playing with his little cousin when he was 5 years old just before she moved north. The most he could remember is pushing her on her little dinosaur wagon and she would laugh a lot when he pushed her really fast. He could even remember when they were playing in the same room and she would leave her dolls behind to play with Speed's toy cars. Pops kept saying it was a sign of a Racer!

“Hey Speed?” Spritle asked standing in the doorway with Chim Chim bouncing around behind him.

“Yeah?” Speed answered pushing his bed against the wall.

“Who's Roselyn?”

“She's our cousin, Spritle. You don't know her because you weren't even born when she moved away from us,”

“Is she nice?”

“You know I'm not really sure, the last time I saw her, she was just a baby…” Speed said. He realized that Raspberry could very well be a rebellious bad girl whose attitude was no better.

“What's wrong, Speed?” Spritle asked; his curiosity about the new Racer was getting to him.

“Huh? Oh nothing little bro, I'm sure she's very nice…” Speed replied hoping that he was right. “And I think she might prefer it if you called her Raspberry…”

“Really? Why?”

“Well, her father always called her Raspberry, so I'm assuming that's what she likes to go by…” Speed smiled.

The phone in his room rang. Speed answered hoping it wasn't anything as serious as the phone call they had received earlier. A lovely voice replied that put Speed's nerves to rest at once.

“Hey Speed! What's up?” Trixie said cheerfully.

“Oh Trixie, It's you…” Speed sighed. Sensing it was Trixie, Spritle plopped himself on Speed's bed tossing his pillow in the air as he always did waiting for his brother to stop talking to his girlfriend. Chim Chim followed suit.

“Of course it's me. Whom did you expect?” Trixie replied.

“Well the last phone call we just got really changed our lives,”

“Really? What happened?” Trixie asked curiously.

“Well my Uncle Albert is dying and we're expecting a new Racer in the family…” Speed said.

“Oh my, I'm sorry about your Uncle. And Mom is expecting?” she asked not really sure how to feel.

“Huh? Oh no! I meant since my uncle is dying, he's asked Pops to care for his daughter, well my cousin, since she'll be all alone. So she's coming to live with us,” Speed said laughing.

“Oh gosh, I'm sorry Speed,” Trixie began to laugh with him.

“That's ok, I think Mom has enough with Spritle, don't you think?” Speed said still laughing.

“No kidding!” she agreed.

“Hey! Don't talk about me!” Spritle yelled throwing a pillow at Speed.

“Ah, hey Spritle cut that out!” he said throwing the pillow back at Spritle but ended up hitting Chim Chim instead.

“Pillow Fight!” Spritle yelled.

“Oh no…Spritle declared war…wanna come over before I'm pummeled by pillows?” Speed quickly replied to Trixie before getting hit in the face with his own pillow.

“No prob Speed, I'll be right over!” Trixie replied giggling. Her voice never failed to make his heart skip a beat. He loved it when she made every effort to see him, even if it was to save him from Spritle's pillow attacks!

 

Later that night, Mom wanted to do the best she could to cheer her hubby up. So she had made the most delicious steak with buttery potatoes and sweet corn (yummy!). She made enough to go around; even Sparky and Trixie got nice cuts! Mom ended up lecturing Spritle on his appearance to girls, Pops and Sparky were discussing design models and new tactics for making the Mach 5 better, and Speed and Trixie were whispering little sweet nothings in each other's ears.

“So Speed, tell me about your prima. What's her name?”

“Her name is Roselyn Oleander, but she likes so be called Raspberry…” he replied. Trixie gasped in shock.

“You're kidding me! Your cousin is Raspberry Racer?”

“Well yeah, we have the same last name Trixie…” he said wondering why she was getting so worked up. He wasn't even sure if she heard him because she leaned over to catch Sparky's attention.

“Sparky, his cousin is Raspberry Racer!” Trixie tried to whisper.

“NO WAY!” Sparky couldn't whisper. “I didn't think you guys were related!”

“Well Sparky, we do have the same last name…” Speed replied even more confused at their excitement.

“Speed, there are plenty of people with the same last name but no relation. I wanted to ask, but I didn't want you think I wasn't your fan anymore!”

“My fan anymore? Trixie what is this about?” Speed replied.

“You don't know about the fabulous Raspberry Racer?!” Sparky yelped. “She's even your cousin!”

“That didn't answer my question…” Speed said sarcastically. “That only raised a new one…which is…She's famous?”

“You bet your sweet ass she is!” Trixie said excited. Speed didn't expect that answer, but he liked it!

“Trixie!” Mom said in her motherly tone. She was surprised Trixie would even use that kind of language.

“I'm sorry Mom, but it's just so cool!” she replied practically jumping in her seat. Mom smiled as she rolled her eyes. Speed kinda wished she kept bouncing (naughty boy!). Forcing the thought from his mind he continued ask questions about the cousin he barely knew.

“Raspberry Racer has been car racing since she was 5 years old! She started out in soap box derbies then to Formula 1, and then her father pulled a lot of strings to let her enter in actual races pre-maturely with her race car called the Blue Ghost,” Sparky said sounding a bit nerdy. Both Pops and Mom's jaw dropped when they heard she was racing in real races before she was of age.

“My brother never told me all this!” Pops said in near outrage, his brother was keeping all this from him?

“Your brother is Albert Racer, right?” Trixie asked.

“Yes…”

“Yup, he had her racing for about 13 years in just about anything and everything that has a motor. But about a year and a half ago she had basically her last car race when a sore loser sent her into a tail spin after she crossed the finish line. Her car exploded and she was in the hospital for 3 weeks on life support,” Sparky continued

“It was nothing short of a miracle. Her father wanted to pull the plug on her to end her pain, but once they did, she miraculously started breathing on her own and eventually made a full recovery. In about 4 months, she had started motorcycle racing. Some people believe that it's because she doesn't have a car, some others think she's too scared to go back to car racing,” Trixie said finishing the short biography Sparky had started.

“I don't believe this, why didn't he tell me anything?” Pops said feeling quite betrayed

“It was all over the news Pops; I'm surprised you didn't hear anything about it…” Sparky said.

“Well it might've all happened when he and I had gotten in a huge argument, we didn't talk for a few months…” Pops replied.

“I remember that…”Mom said giving Pops the eye.

“Well we did say sorry…eventually…”Pops said. He didn't realize all that had happened to his brother. He felt pretty ashamed at the thought of it. Feeling the mood was a little tense, Chim Chim got up and started to hop on Spritle's shoulders nearly pushing his face into his food.

“Ow! Chim Chim get off! I don't think he liked the conversation so he's trying to be funny,”

“Well I think it worked,” Trixie said laughing. “Chim Chim managed to get mashed potatoes on your chin!”

“Honey, I think that was there before Chim Chim started clowning…” Mom said running a napkin across her son's chin.

The doorbell rang, interrupting what was possibly the most exciting casual dinner party. Pops reluctantly got up and answered the fussy doorbell.

“Alright, I'm coming…” Pops called to the door, which seemed to be impatient. He opened the door to an apparent motorcyclist dressed in a racer suit with a cycle helmet. The outline told Pops it was a little woman dressed in all that.

“Are you Pops Racer?” the cyclist woman asked.

“Why yes, I am. To whom do I owe this honor?” Pops asked out of spite disappointed that a good dinner was ruined by her interruption. The girl lifted up the visor to her helmet.

`Hi, I'm Raspberry Racer, your niece!” she said cheerfully. Her smile undeniably belonged to her father. Pops found it hard to rebuff that it was indeed the daughter of his beloved brother.

“Raspberry? But we weren't expecting you until tomorrow,” Pops said.

“Yeah, I know. I didn't stay in a hotel like my father wanted me to,” Raspberry said with her hand behind her head in embarrassment.

“Oh, that's ok…Come in, Come in” Pops welcomed. She stepped in as asked.

“Oh Honeeey,” he called as she came in. “We have an early visitor!”