Saat Fatih tertidur, ibunya dan neneknya masih terjaga, sedang mendalam dalam diskusi. Güldane baru saja memperbarui Rümeysa tentang rincian pertemuannya dengan direktur akademi.
u201cJadi, menurutmu, apa yang harus kita lakukan?u201d tanya Güldane, mencari pendapat anaknya.
Rümeysa terdiam sejenak, menyerap informasi itu, pikiran hukumnya sudah menganalisis berbagai kemungkinan. u201cUntuk saat ini, kita tidak membuat keputusan apapun,u201d katanya akhirnya. u201cKami akan berbincang dengan akademi dan Aslan untuk memahami seluruh situasi, tetapi tidak akan berkomitmen. Kami menunggu. Hal ini memberi waktu bagi akademi lain untuk membuat penawaran, sehingga kami memiliki keuntungan yang lebih baik dalam negosiasi.u201d
Ekspresinya sedikit melembut saat ia beralih dari peran pengacara ke peran ibu. u201cIni juga memberi waktu bagi Fatih untuk bertunjih kembali dan membuktikan bahwa kemenangan pertamanya bukan kebetulan. Semakin baik performanya di balapan-balaan mendatang, semakin meningkat nilainya. Mereka akan ingin menyelesaikan kontrak secepatnya, takut seseorang lain mengajukan penawaran yang tidak bisa kami tolak. Mereka akan dipaksa memberikan kesepakatan yang lebih menguntungkan, dengan kebebasan yang lebih besar untuk Fatih.u201d
Sesama pengacara, dia perlu mengamankan sebanyak mungkin keuntungan untuk kliennya. Sebagai ibu, dia harus ingat bahwa Fatih masih anak-anak, dan anak-anak mudah bosan. Meski Fatih telah menunjukkan tingkat konsentrasi yang obsesif selama lebih dari setahun, dia tidak bisa mengabaikan kemungkinan itu.
u201cAku tidak memikirkan ia akan kehilangan minat pada karting dalam waktu dekat,u201d kata Güldane dengan keyakinan tenang seseorang yang sudah besarkan satu anak dan sekarang sedang membantu mengasuh yang lain. u201c Aku tahu perbedaannya antara minat sementara dan semangat yang mendalam. Fatih sudah sangat terobsesi dengan otomotif, dan aku belum melihat sekilas pun tanda-tanda ia akan berubah.u201d
Keyakinan ibunya cukup membujuknya. u201cMaka kita akan memulai diskusi formal dengan akademi dan Aslan,u201d putuskan Rümeysa, rencana teralatinya semakin jelas. u201cKita akan melihat bagaimana keadaannya sambil menunggu penawaran lain untuk digunakan dalam diplomasi.u201d
u201cBaiklah,u201d kata Güldane dengan senyum hangat. u201cIni akan menghilangkan beban biaya dari hobi mu, sehingga kamu hanya perlu menguruskan aspek emosionalnya.u201d
u201cTapi ia akan merasakan tekanan untuk bertunjuk,u201d timpalnya.
u201cHanya jika ia mengetahuinya,u201d menjawab Güldane sambil tertawa, lalu mengambil sejumput air. u201cDan ia bisa bertunjuk dengan baik tanpa pengetahuannya. Baik ia maupun sponsor ingin hal yang sama: menang. Ia sudah cukup termotivasi.u201d
Tak sadar akan percakapan berdampak tinggi ini, Fatih melanjutkan rutinitasnya untuk sisa bulan. Setiap Senin, Rabu, dan Sabtu, ia berada di akademi. Di hari-hari lainnya, ia menyelesaikan misi harian, mengendarai kart di taman, dan bermain dengan Emir, menikmati kehidupan sederhana seorang anak yang belum dibebani sekolah.
Di waktu lain, Rümeysa hidupnya seperti sebuah badai—penuh pertemuan dan panggilan telepon dengan akademi, Aslan, dan pihak lain yang ingin mendukung Fatih. Di malam hari, ia menghabiskan waktu untuk mempelajari hukum ketenagakerjaan anak-anak, kontrak sponsor, dan kode pajak yang relevan.
Fatih, yang sudah mengajari dirinya sendiri untuk membaca bahasa Turki dengan menghubungkan alfabet Inggris dengan suara nama produk Turki, menyadari apa yang sedang ibunya lakukan. Ia melihat tumpukan dokumen dan malam-malam larutnya. Sebagai tanggapan, ia sengaja tidak mengganggu ibunya, berusaha mengurangi stresnya yang sudah sangat sibuk, sambil tetap fokus pada pekerjaannya sendiri yang menantang.
Sebagai gantinya, ia membuat kemajuan yang konsisten dalam pelatihan dengan Apollo. Namun, karena banyaknya informasi yang harus dia serap tentang pengelolaan ban, ia masih belum bahkan setengah jalan ketika akhir April tiba. Bulan Mei, bulan ulang tahunnya, telah dimulai, dan hanya tersisa satu hari sebelum akhir pekan balapan kedua kejuaran yang akan digelar di Ankara.
Rümeysa, yang sudah bersiap dengan jauh-jauh hari, mengajak Fatih dan ibunya ke Terminal Bis Esenler untuk memulai perjalanan. Ia tidak melihat alasan untuk mengemudi berjam-jam ketika akademi sudah menangani pengiriman peralatan; yang perlu dibawa hanyalah pakaian.
Apa yang tidak Rümeysa katakan kepada Fatih adalah bahwa untuk semua pihak yang terlibat—sponsor, beasiswa, dan peluang lainnya—balapan ini sangat penting. Mereka, dan Rümeysa, menunda penandatanganan kontrak hingga akhir pekan ini selesai. Baginya, ini tentang kedamaian dan meningkatkan nilai Fatih lebih lanjut dengan membuktikan kemenangan pertamanya bukanlah keuntungan yang tidak berkelanjutan. Bagi sponsor, ini tentang memastikan mereka tidak tertipu untuk mendukung seseorang yang hanya bisa menang sekali.
Setelah tiba di Ankara, mereka naik taksi ke sebuah hotel yang sudah dipesan sebelumnya. Setelah makan malam yang cepat, Rümeysa mengirim Fatih dan ibunya ke kamar untuk istirahat. Malamnya untuk ibu, bagaimanapun, baru saja dimulai. Ia memiliki pertemuan dengan perwakilan yang sudah terbang ke Ankara khusus untuk akhir pekan ini dan kontraknya. Tujuannya adalah untuk meninjau draft kontrak, memperjelas isi, dan melakukan penyesuaian akhir, sehingga pada akhir akhir pekan
While Fatih slept, his mother and grandmother were wide awake, deep in discussion. Güldane had just finished bringing Rümeysa up to date on the details of her meeting with the academy director.
"So, what do you think we should do?" Güldane asked, seeking her daughter’s opinion.
Rümeysa was silent for a moment, digesting the information, her legal mind already processing the various angles. "For now, we don’t make any decisions," she said finally. "We’ll have conversations with both the academy and Aslan to get the full picture, but we won’t commit to anything. We wait. This will give other academies time to make their own offers, which will give us better leverage in any negotiation."
She leaned forward, her voice taking on a more strategic tone. "It also buys Fatih time. Time for him to perform again and prove that his first win wasn’t a fluke. The better he performs in the upcoming races, the more his value increases. That will make them want to close a deal as early as possible, afraid that someone else might make an offer we can’t refuse. They’ll be forced to give us a deal that’s closer to their bottom line, with a greater degree of freedom for Fatih."
Her expression softened slightly as she shifted from lawyer to mother. "We can also use this time to see if there are any signs of him losing interest in the sport, no matter how unlikely that seems. The moment we sign one of these contracts, his career path is locked in for the duration of its term. If he changes his mind, the penalties for breaking contract would be financially crippling. To avoid that, we might have to require him to continue driving, which would be cruel."
As a lawyer, she needed to secure the most benefits for her client. As a mother, she had to remember that Fatih was just a child, and children can be fickle. Although Fatih had shown an obsessive level of concentration for over a year, she couldn’t ignore the possibility.
"I don’t think he is going to lose interest in karting for a very long time," Güldane said with the quiet confidence of someone who had raised one child and was now helping raise another. "I know the difference between a temporary interest and a deep-seated passion. Fatih is obsessed with motorsport, and I haven’t seen a single hint of that changing."
Her mother’s assurance was enough. "Then we’ll start having formal discussions with the academy and with Aslan," Rümeysa decided, her plan solidifying. "We’ll see how things go as we wait for other offers to use in negotiations."
"Good," Güldane said with a warm smile. "It would remove the monetary burden of his hobby from you, leaving you only responsible for the emotional one."
"But he’ll have the pressure to perform."
"Only if he knows about it," Güldane countered with a chuckle, taking a sip of water. "And he can perform perfectly well without that knowledge. Both he and the sponsors want the same thing: to win. He’s already motivated enough."
Unaware of these high-stakes conversations, Fatih continued his routine for the remainder of the month. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays were for the academy. On the other days, he completed his daily missions, drove his kart in the park, and played with Emir, enjoying the simple life of a child not yet burdened by school. His nights were spent in the Simulation, diligently learning the fundamentals of tire management.
While his life went on without any apparent changes, Rümeysa’s was a whirlwind of meetings and phone calls with different academies, with Aslan, and with others who had reached out to sponsor Fatih. At night, she spent her free time poring over child labor laws, sponsorship contracts, and relevant tax codes.
Fatih, who had already taught himself to read Turkish by correlating the English alphabet with the sounds of Turkish product names, realized what his mother was doing. He saw the stacks of documents and the late nights she was putting in. As a result, he made a conscious effort not to bother her, trying to reduce her stress while she was already doing so much, all while continuing her own demanding job.
In return, he was making steady progress in his training with Apollo. However, due to the sheer volume of information he needed to absorb about tire management, he was still not even halfway through the basics when the end of April arrived. May, his birthday month, had begun, and only one day remained before the second race weekend of the championship, set to take place in Ankara.
Rümeysa, having prepared well in advance, took Fatih and her mother to the Esenler Bus Terminal to begin their journey. She saw no reason to drive for hours when the academy was handling all the equipment transport; all they needed to bring were their clothes.
What Rümeysa didn’t tell Fatih was that for all the parties she was in contact with—regarding sponsorships, scholarships, and other opportunities—this race was crucial. She, and they, were holding off on signing any agreements until after this second weekend was complete. For her, it was about peace of mind and increasing Fatih’s value even further by proving his first win was no fluke. For the sponsors, it was about ensuring they weren’t being duped into backing a one-hit wonder.
Upon their arrival in Ankara, they took a taxi to a hotel they had booked in advance. After a quick dinner, Rümeysa sent Fatih and her mother to their room to rest. Her own night, however, was just beginning. She had meetings scheduled with the representatives who had flown to Ankara specifically for the race weekend and the contracts. The goal was to go through the draft agreements, clarifying terms and making final adjustments, ensuring that by the end of the race weekend, the only thing remaining would be a signature.
Since they had already discussed the broad strokes of the contracts in their previous conversations, the actual changes were minimal. Rümeysa spent the first part of her evening meticulously combing through the documents one last time, her eyes searching for any ambiguous language or hidden clauses. Once satisfied with her own review, she forwarded the finalized drafts to a specialist lawyer she had hired, an expert in sports sponsorship contracts, for a final professional opinion. With her due diligence complete, she finally returned to her room, ready for the crucial day ahead.
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