Miles Perhour

Entry 1, fog after six

Miles Perhour took to the cable station in Switchback Ridge because the senior operator kept a large printed schedule and wore a good waistcoat. Both of those appealed to him. His first work of consequence was registering the times the cabins left the terminal. He got to the first fog and asked where to write it. The operator told him the place where he'd been writing the weather all week. Miles said he'd been writing no such thing. The operator pulled a long flat box out of the desk and let him read the delay notes from winters when the wind had changed and the times made very little sense alone.

He kept the little timetable habit when he began driving the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 at DGM. The pocket notebook had a back cover yellowed around the corners and room for a whole morning if each line had only a time beside it. He could tell you exactly how long a closed-course pass took on his first clear January. He had written nothing about the damp line he could remember watching every time he made the first turn.

Entry 17, a different noise

Somewhere around the bend before the return lane, Miles heard what he described to his sister Dorrie as a hand brushed across a stiff coat. It happened near where he eased off the brake. He heard it again and came in. At the bench he could see a faint rub mark beneath the dust. The watch told him he'd taken longer than usual. The watch didn't mention the mark. His sister made a second column in the notebook with the edge of a train ticket and asked him to say what he'd heard again while it was still fresh.

Miles changed the way he used the first little page of each practice. He still wanted the approach to feel the same each time. Some days he drew a car shape across three rows just to show where a sound came from. When John Solo asked him to watch the Taycan without taking a time, he was starting to understand how it felt to stand on that seam and watch another driver do something the driver could hardly see.

Entry 31, blank while waiting

Boost Willis had his Bugatti on the bench when Miles arrived early with a thermos. There was a clean shirt on the stool and an axle that sometimes ran free until it didn't. Boost spoke confidently about what he had already checked. Halfway down the list, he mentioned the same check twice. Miles started a card in order and stayed for the next try. He crossed out one whole line where he hadn't seen what Boost did with his hands. Boost noticed the strike and asked whether Miles would mind doing it again while he watched.

Miles came home that afternoon with the thermos still closed. Dorrie asked who he'd been talking to. She has got good at guessing what will make him completely forget a cup of tea.

October page, under discussion

The cable station has asked Miles to help set up a display of its old service books. He wants to show a page that has a lot of empty time on it and a crowd of notes by the last line. Dorrie says people would enjoy the book just as much if he left it open without his explanation. Miles has put the display case key in the pocket with his practice diary. He is fairly sure which one he'll reach for first when he gets to the garage.