Epilogue
Well, that pretty much surmises the goings on of these folks. Carl died during the amateur demolition derby incident. Stacy and Anders fell head over heels for each other. Not sure if it's going to work out in the long run, though. The stirrings of their love did lead to Carl's brainless choice to enter the derby where he met his maker. His love and Anders made-out in the grandstands while his car burned. Anders'll need to get back to his Olympics training before long. Or, maybe he really will quit and get back to running for the love of what's beyond the bend. Who knows with young kids and their moony eyes.
Steven arrived just a singed-hair too late. His final magician's performance not enough to win back Stacy's affection. Why he thought it would work, I'm not sure. It was his tricks that caused her to run off in the first place. First to the 24-hour rodeo in Wyoming with Carl, then the detour to the Pine County Demolition Derby on their way back East. The crowd wasn't overly interested in his antics either as Steven strained to be heard over the sounds of firetruck sirens, an ambulance, the murmurings of the concerned in attendance and a plea from the public address announcer to "Please remain calm and in your seats, everything's under control." He said "seats", even though they were aluminum benches. He said that even as Carl's garbled screams abruptly died off.
The moral here, I suppose, well...I suppose the moral is that life is a funny thing. Sometimes you live, sometimes you die. Sometimes you win the affection of the one you love with some crazy-ass stunt, and sometimes you die. Sometimes everyone ignores you because you just don't matter, and sometimes you die. Sometimes you love someone so hard that you die. Sometimes the love is returned and years later you die.
Really, here's the moral: you might as well go out in a blaze of stupidity than to die a nothing. Maybe it's oversimplifying things, but at least people who were watching that day will remember the time they saw a ruptured gas tank catch fire and an inexperienced driver die because he couldn't remove his restraints while a magician tried his damnedest to make the whole world disappear and an Olympics long-distance runner kissed a Jersey girl and they didn't pay any attention to the wildness around them. All I'm saying is look out for yourself because you're gonna die too someday.
It's a crazy place we make our way in. Try like hell to make it matter.
Last Chapter of a Novel: An Everything Quest