~Chapter 12~
Lightning, Sally, and Jane were home in the wheel well.
“Do you have all of the decorations?”, Sally asked. She was talking on the phone. She continued to talk but kept pausing to hear the other car on the line.
“Okay so we have the decorations, but what about the cake?..Oh! Lemon!..The flowers lining the town? Pink!..The caterer?..Her name is Flo!..Oh no…yeah…yeah I forgot the music…alright you can get her!..Yeah, me and Lightning do have a song but can she play it?..She can play anything we want?..Alright!! Then our song is great!! I’ll tell her the day of the wedding. All the rest of the details I’ll let you pick out on your own…okay…alright…thanks hun!” She hung up.
Sally drove into the living room. She smiled at what she saw. Lightning was in front of the TV watching ‘Dora The Ford Explorer’ with Jane.
“Come on vamanos!!”, said Lightning, in a baby like voice. Jane started giggling and started dancing and bouncing with the music. When Lightning saw Jane doing that, Lightning danced and bounced with her. Sally backed out of the living room and went into her and Lightning’s bedroom. She picked up a video camera and attached the suction cup to her rim. She slowly drove back to the living room quietly and started recording. “Can you say ‘verde’?”, asked Dora, on the television. Jane struggled with her words.
“Ba-Ba-er-er-dee”, said Jane. Lightning laughed and said in his baby voice, “Right!! Verde!!!”
Sally was holding her laughter back.
“Who do we ask for help when we don’t know which way to go?”, asked Dora. Dora paused her words on the TV for a minute to let the child speak. “The GPS!”, said Lightning, in his baby voice. “Right!”, said Dora. “The GPS!!”
Sally couldn’t hold it in anymore. She busted out laughing. Lightning turned around with a smile on his face. He laughed when he saw Sally with their video camera.
“Sally! What are you doing???”, he asked.
“Exposing you for the soft man you are, Mr. McQueen!”
She was still recording.
“Give me the video camera!”, Lightning playfully demanded. Sally started to act like a woman interviewing Lightning for the news.
“So tell me, Lightning, how long is this journey you’re taking with Jane going to be?”, she asked.
“It’s been postponed until you turn off the camera!”, said Lightning. Sally rolled her eyes, laughed, and said, “You’ll never catch me!!”
“Oh yes I will!”
“No you won’t!”
“Yes I will!”
Sally started to speed around the house and Lightning followed close behind, not catching her on purpose. Jane was watching as they chased each other and she started laughing. Jane smiled and she revved her engine. Lightning and Sally paused and looked at Jane. She started to speed around the house. Lightning’s jaw dropped.
“Jane?”, asked Sally. Jane stopped and looked at Sally. She drove over to her and parked next to her and Lightning. She revved her engine again and pointed at Lightning. Lightning smiled. He revved.
Jane revved.
Lightning revved.
Jane revved.
Sally felt out of place. She looked lost, so she gently revved her engine too. Lightning laughed and said, “Not quite, Sally.”
Sally smiled at stared at Lightning. “I can’t believe it…”, she said.
“What?”, asked Lightning.
“…you know…”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…”
Lightning drove close to Sally and kissed her. “Something, Sally…”
“It’s just that…Jane…”
“Yeah?”
“She’s growing up so fast.”
Lightning’s engine sank when he realized she was right. He looked over at Jane. She was spinning in circles very fast.
“Yeah…”, said Lightning gloomily. “Well, tomorrow is our big day.” He smiled. Sally giggled. She kissed him.
“I…have a surprise for you but I’m afraid to show you.”, said Sally.
“No! Don’t be afraid to show me anything.”, Lighting replied.
Lightning stuck his tongue out at Sally. Sally gave Lightning a playful disgusted look and pushed him away.
“Fine!”, said Lightning, playfully. “I need to put Jane to sleep anyway.” He looked at Jane. “Come on, sweetie pie.”
Jane smiled and followed Lightning into her room. Lightning tilted his hood and Jane drove onto it. He lifted Jane and placed her on her little crib. Lightning pushed the bars up with his hood. “Goodnight, Jane.”, Lightning said, softly. Jane put her hood up against the bars and puckered her lips. Lightning looked at this. He could remember Sally doing the same thing to him when he was stuck in the impound. Lightning gently kissed Jane’s lips. “Jane, you do know that daddy loves you.”
Jane didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She didn’t know how.
“Night, darling.”
Lightning drove out of her room and then drove to Sally. “Let’s go to bed, baby.”, said Sally. Lightning nodded. They drove to their bedroom. Lightning and Sally drove onto their mattress. Lightning looked at Sally. He nudged her gently.
“Hey…”, he said. Sally looked at him. “I love you, Sally Carerra McQueen.”
She gasped lightly and smiled. Sally never really thought of their names together that much. She loved the way it sounded.
“Always…and forever?”, she asked. Lightning leaned into her and closed his eyes. He whispered, “To infinity and beyond.”
Sally leaned back into Lightning and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, Lightning and Sally got to sleep. As Sally was dreaming about their wedding tomorrow and how perfect it will be, Lightning was dreaming about something else…
Lightning was parked at the end of the street at the statue of Stanley in Radiator Springs. He looked around the town. It was all decorated for Lightning and Sally’s wedding.
“Wow! Sally! The town is decorated really good for our wedding!”, said Lightning. “Who are you talking to?”, whispered Mater. Lightning looked over to his left. Mater was parked next to him painted in a coat of black. He had a hood too. Doc was parked on Lightning’s right but behind him. Doc was wearing black as well but his bumpers were painted white.
“Doc?”, asked Lightning. “Yes, Lightning?”, asked Doc.
“You look really good!”
“Thanks, Lightning.”
Lightning looked down at his hood which was painted black. He assumed that his whole body was black and he was right. He looked at his tires and he was wearing white walls with golden hubcaps. All of the rest of men wore plain white wall tires and were painted black. Lightning looked over at his right. Four ladies were parked there. Flo, Mia, Tia, and Nurse GTO. All the ladies wore tires that were all white. Literally, all white, with rims made of opal. Also, all of the women, including the four with Lightning, were painted white.
Lightning looked away from the four bridesmaids and down the street. Everything started to fade away.
His dream was changing. Suddenly, he was surrounded by a racing stadium setting. Instead of being on the race track, he was parked in the audience.
“…and here comes McQueen rounding turn four!!”, said Bob Cutlass, the announcers of the race. “MCQUEEN IS GONNA WIN THIS YEAR’S PISTON CUP!!”, yelled Darrel Cartrip, the other race announcer.“McQueen?!”, said Lightning. “But how? I’m over here!”
He looked up at the screen that shows racers up close. A female racer was shown on the screen. She was a white Porsche. The number ‘95’ was on her side painted in black. She had sponsor stickers all over her body. Suddenly, a name appeared on the screen. Lightning read it out loud, “Jane…Taylor…McQueen…?”
Jane zoomed past the finish line.
“WOOOOOOO HOOOO!!! YES!!”, Jane screamed. She drove onto the grass off the side of the track. She turned her tires, slammed on the gas, and started doing donuts. She ripped up the grass from under her tires when she did that which was leaving rings of dirt.
“I WON!!!”, she yelled. The whole audience of cars screamed her name and cheered. Lighting’s eyes widened. He drove out of the audience and on the field.
“Jane!”, yelled Lightning. Bob and Darrel looked over at Lightning.’
“It looks like daddy is coming to give a congrats to Jane!”, said Darrel. Lightning smiled wide, but the audience stopped cheering and Jane stopped doing donuts. Jane looked at Lightning and her mouth dropped open.
“Dad?”, asked Jane. Lightning started driving over to Jane. While he was driving he yelled, “My darling! You’re racing? You race? Oh my-”
“Looks like Lightning finally came back into Jane’s life.”, interrupted Bob. Lightning stopped hard and looked around him. He finally noticed the audience not making any more noise.
“Huh?”, asked Lightning. The whole audience started to ‘boo’ Lightning. Oil cans and food were being thrown and hitting Lightning in the face.
“HEY!..UGH!..STOP!..What are you-…OW!!!..EWWW!!!”, said Lighting, between throws.
Jane started to back away from Lightning.
“Well, you know what they say, Bob, racecars never have time for their kids. They just leave them for their mother to take care of them.”, said Darell. Jane sped away from Lightning and into pit lane.
“Security!”, yelled Jane. A few big trucks crowded Lightning and pushed him away from her.
“Stop! STOP!!!”, Lightning begged.
“LIGHTNING!”, yelled a female voice from behind him. He turned around. It was Sally. “You left us with NOTHING!”, screamed Sally. Lightning gasped. He could barely speak, “No I…I…”
Lightning couldn’t handle it. All of the security around him, his daughter as an adult, Sally yelling at him, and the audience booing him made him crack. He slammed on his gas pedal and sped away. “LIGHTNING! GET OVER HERE!”, yelled Sally. “LIGHTNING! LIGHTNING!!!”
“Lightning? Lightning? Lightning? Lightning!”, said Sally. She nudged him. “Wake up. We need to go to our wedding.”
I think you’re the first to notice! The lines he was saying were just like the ones he said in the movie. The lines had nothing to do with the birth. The joke was that they were all saying lines that were in the movie so Mater, who says things at the wrong time, thought it was okay to ask if they were quoting the movie on purpose. So he started doing it to be obnoxious.
I’m glad you liked the scene where he proposed in the better way. 
and Jane is finally driving. 
