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It was another beautiful day in Radiator Springs, Arizona. Unfortunately, it was also a hot day, easily the hottest day of the year and as such everyone was inside. The sky was clear, the sun bright, and the air dry and dusty. The streets were clear for the town folk was desperate to avoid the heat, only two people were out and they were quickly heading inside.
The town’s Sheriff, Mike, was sweating under his uniform as he and the local firefighter headed over to Flo’s V-8 Cafe to enjoy their lunch breaks in the nice air conditioned air.
Reaching the cafe Mike let out a sigh of relief, Radiator Springs was a small town and it didn’t take long to walk many places but he didn’t enjoy being out in the heat longer than he had too. As the two men moved across the parking lot the sheriff noted the strange car sitting in one of the empty spaces.
Visitors to Radiator Springs had been slowly dwindling ever since that new highway had been built, the owners of that car were probably the first all weekend. Distracted as he was, Mike almost didn’t spot the small figure inside as he passed by, his mind focused on getting indoors.
His mind quickly caught up to him and he stopped, doubling back to peer through the windows of the expensive looking BMW. There in the backseat was a child, a young boy no older than eight years old slumped against the opposite window, seemingly unconscious.
Red noticed his snooping and came over to see what he was looking at, the larger man froze at the sight of the kid before quickly snapping into Rescue Mode. He lifted a hand, not even bothering with ASL, and pointed to the cafe. The message was clear, go get help.
Mike nodded and ran to the double doors, throwing them open. “Hello Sheriff” Flo greeted, then she noticed the expression on his face “what’s wrong?”
“Who owns that car out there?” He demanded, pointing back outside.
“It belongs to a couple that came by earlier” Flo explained “I didn’t catch their names but they seemed to have gotten a bit lost. They ordered themselves some lunch and then Lottie took them back to the motel to look at a map. Why?”
“There’s a kid in there” he explained “he’s unconscious, I think he has heatstroke.”
“Where?” Paul Hudson asked, voice hard, already on his feet.
Mike gestured for his friend to follow when they all heard the sound of glass shattering.
—---------
Despite graduating from the Phoenix Firefighting Academy and completing his probation year Sam, or ‘Red’ as everyone called him, didn’t have much experience as a firefighter. It was all part of living in such a small town, the most he had ever done was go and help put out small fires caused by cooking accidents or faulty Christmas lights. But when he saw that boy all of his training kicked in.
The first thing he did was, of course, try and open the door. Red was unsurprised when he found it locked. Next he knocked on the windows as loud as he could, trying to get the child’s attention, but he didn’t even stir.
Looking around, Red spotted a large rock that was a little bigger than his palm, and the first responder quickly pulled on his protective gloves. Without hesitation he slammed the rock into the passenger side’s window with all his strength, completely shattering the glass.
Throwing the rock away, Red reached through the now-broken window to unlock the back door from the inside. He reached in and carefully pulled the kid out, laying him down at the concert. He looked up at the sounds of running footsteps to see the Sheriff and town doctor beelining it to him, the rest of the cafe patrons close behind.
Doc bent down next to Red, looking over the boy and the two quickly began to work on cooling him down. Flo and the other town folks helped by getting them water, towels, and ice. Slowly his temperature began to lower back down to something more normal.
“We’ll need to take him to the clinic," Doc decided. Red nodded, heatstroke was a dangerous thing and from what he could tell the boy had been in there for a while.
“You two should probably take him then” the Sheriff decided “it’s not going to get any cooler and while I may not be a medical professional I do know he shouldn’t be out in the heat for any much longer.”
Red nodded, scoping up the boy carefully in his arms. At the sound of yelling he turned his head to see a couple making a beeline towards them, likely the owners of the car. They were both hollering over the condition of their car and threatening to sue them for the damages, neither one of them seemed to care about the unconscious child in Red’s arms.
The firefighter noticed how skinny and light the child was and how his clothes were threadbare and ill fitting, clear signs of mistreatment. Sheriff Mike noticed this too, if the grave look on his face said anything.
“You two get him inside” he said, he turned back to the couple. “I’ll take care of this.”
—-----------
Montgomery McQueen, Monty for short, was confused. The last thing he remembered was him sitting in the backseat of his foster parent’s car and trying to keep himself cool.
They had been on the road for a couple of days now on some road trip Monty didn’t know the purpose of, his foster parents weren’t about to tell him and he didn’t want to make them mad by asking. They had gotten lost on the highway and ended up on some backroad before pulling into a town.
His foster parents left him in the car while they went to grab a bite and get directions. Of course, they weren’t about to get Monty lunch. They had given him a couple of water bottles and a few snacks when they left and those were long gone. Monty knew they weren’t going to give him anymore until they arrived at their final destination.
But he wasn’t in the car anymore, instead he was laying in a bed and staring up at a plain white ceiling. The lights were dim but just bright enough that he could make out what looked like medical equipment. Was he in some kind of hospital? That didn’t make sense, Monty wasn’t sick.
The door opened and he sat up a little to see a man walk in. He had graying black hair and a thick mustache that reminded him of the end of a broom, he wore a button up and a tie with a long white coat over the top. A doctor.
The man didn’t seem to notice Monty’s staring at first, looking down at a clipboard. He glanced up and noticed him “oh good,” he said “you’re awake.”
The doctor’s voice was deep and had a bit of a rasp, it was strangely comforting. He walked over to his bedside and pulled up a chair, sitting down. “How are you feeling?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Doctor Paul Hudson” he introduced “everyone calls me ‘Doc’. What’s your name?”
“Monty” he said “Monty McQueen. My full name is Montgomery but I don’t really like that.” The man, Doc, nodded and made a note on his clipboard. “What happened?”
“We found you passed out in a car” Doc explained “Red, our local first responder, had to break the window to get you out. You were suffering from extreme heatstroke.”
“You broke the car?” He said, shocked “my foster parents won’t like that.”
“You don’t need to worry about that” Doc said “the Sheriff arrested them.”
“What?!” He cried “why?”
“Becuase they abandoned you in their car on the hottest day of the year without air conditioning or water.”
“They were going to come back!”
The doctor fixed him with a serious look that made Monty squirm. “You almost died.”
That made him go quiet, Doc got up to check the hanging bag thing that was attached to the tub sticking out of his arm. It wasn’t that Monty necessarily liked his foster parents but they were better than some of his other ones. It wasn’t like they hit him or anything, the worst they did was forget to feed him or refuse to buy him new clothes.
“What’s going to happen to me now?”
That was the worst thing, the not knowing. At least with his current (or past, he supposed) guardians he at least knew what to expect. Monty had no idea what the next people would be like.
“It’s going to be a few weeks until a social worker can come out” Doc explained “our town is pretty isolated and it’s a bit of a drive. So until then you’re going to stay with me.”
“I am?”
“You are,” he confirmed. “I have the room and this way I’ll be there in case something happens to you.”
Right, cause he almost died.
Monty looked down at the stiff white blankets, fiddling with them a little bit. A hand rested on his shoulder and he looked up to see Doc kneeling next to him, a soft look on his face.
“Don’t worry kid” he said “you’re going to be okay.”
He didn’t know why but somehow Monty believed him.
—-------------
Lighting McQueen (his friends and family still called him Monty) sat on his front stoop, watching the morning sun rise behind the tall rocks that made up the landscape around Radiator Springs. He readjusted the blanket around his shoulders that helped to beat the chill of the desert morning as he watched the town wake up.
He watched as Flo opened the dinner by turning on the light up ‘open’ sign. He watched her husband, Ramone, stood in the open garage of his shop, his car inside and ready to repainted.
A pair of Italians, Guido and Luigi, were getting ready to open their tire store. Fillmore and Sarge were sitting outside their respective businesses, their familiar bickering reaching Lighting’s ears.
He watched as Red helped Lizzie, the town founder’s widow and the souvenir shop owner, across the street to the dinner. Lighting could see the Sheriff was sitting in his parked car towards the end of the street, and Mater, his best friend, was driving his rusty tow truck to his junk yard. And lastly the newest resident, Sally, was leaving the Cozy Cone Motel.
The door opened behind him and Lighting leaned his head back to see Doc Hudson standing in the doorway. “Hey Pops.”
“Monty.”
“Daaad” he pouted dramatically “I keep telling you, it’s Lightning now.”
“Ah yes” Doc nodded sagely “your self declared racing name.”
“It’ll catch on,” he said confidently.
It had been ten years since Monty had woken up in the clinic. Doc had taken the boy in and soon found himself attached, so when a social worker finally made their way out to the sleepy town Doc asked to foster Monty long term. Six months later and he had adopted him.
Mony was now twenty and was working to build his racing career. And despite his dad’s hesitation Doc agreed to train him, if nothing else than to keep him from dying in a fiery crash.
Doc moved to sit down beside him on the step, going slow to account for his bad leg. Lighting leaned into his dad a bit and the old racer wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“What are you thinking about?” The man asked.
“The day we first met.”
“Ah.”
“You know…” Lighting said “I’m honestly kind of glad my foster parents left me in that car.”
Doc turned to stare at him with the expression he always put on whenever his kid said something stupid…. Which was often. “You’re happy that you almost died.”
“What no!” He said “that’s not what I meant.”
Lighting took a moment to think through his thoughts “what I mean was that while yeah, that whole thing sucked if it wasn’t for them then I wouldn’t be here.” He said “I wouldn’t have been adopted and never gotten a family.”
Doc Hudson may have been the one to file the paperwork but that day the entire town of Radiator Springs had become his family.
His dad tightened his hold and leaned over to kiss him on the top of his head. “I’m glad you're here too son.”
Lightning basked in the moment until Doc pulled away, “alright, help me up” he said “we got training to do.”
He jumped to his feet and helped Doc stand “do you really think I’m ready?”
“Do I think you’ll win?” He asked “no, but I think it’ll be a good learning opportunity.”
“Just you wait old man” Monty declared “I’ll be the first rookie to win the Piston Cup, you’ll see!”
Doc smiled fondly as his son ran off to get ready. While he would never admit it to the kid’s face (he had a big enough ego already) he was sure that Monty would go on to be a great racer. Maybe even better than him.