After an especially potent and profitable batch of meth years ago, before he went to prison, Wayne bought a PlayStation. It came with a free racing game called Rally Riders. When he first opened the box, he sat down and played it with Doo, who was too young to handle the controls.

Since then, Doo has kept the game case in his underwear drawer. It’s cracked and doesn’t snap shut anymore. He popped the disc into the old console, bobbing his head to the menu’s familiar techno music, and selected a game mode called “Beat Yourself.” The screen dissolved to a view floating above a vibrating rally car poised at the starting line.

In front, a winding dirt track disappeared into a dark wood. Lightning flashed across the black sky and the wind blew hard, shaking the trees.

A countdown appeared on the screen:

3

2

1

A pale, gossamer outline of a rally car leapt from the body of Doo’s car and sped off down the trail, a phantom saved from Wayne’s last attempt — the first and only time he played the game with his son. Doo took off after it.

The ghost car was sloppy, veering off the road, smashing into embankments and trees. Doo knew the map by heart, taking each turn perfectly, using the e-brake, kicking up dirt, drifting around corners, keeping just enough distance to watch the bumbling specter in front of him.

He waited for it to get back on the trail when it got stuck in the woods. Whispered come on, come on, you got this when it flipped over and was gently lifted into the air and returned to the center of the track.

On the last leg, a straightaway to the end, Doo opened up, soaring past the ghost, leaving it behind.

He stopped just short of the finish line. Winning would make his run the new best attempt, erasing the previous save. He watched his father’s ghost drive past him.

Words appeared on the screen:

YOU LOSE

The camera’s floating view slowly revolved around Doo’s car parked inches from the black and white checkered line, the words flashing over and over. He switched off the console, put the game back into its case, back into the drawer, and went to bed.