Chapter 12 #2
Gillian wasn’t sure what to say to that. It sounded as if Lefty was emotionally tied to this assistant, whoever she was, and she was a bit sad for both the woman and Lefty.
“Anyway,” Grover said, obviously trying to lighten the mood, “I’ve got it on good authority that if you want to try out the obstacle course after the competition, you’re welcome to.”
“Ha. Seriously?” Gillian asked. “That’s not happening. Although if you guys want to, be my guest. I mean, you’re obviously all in shape, I wouldn’t mind ogling if you wanted to strip down to your shorts and have a go.”
Walker growled next to her, and Gillian couldn’t do anything but laugh.
“The only ogling you’re gonna do is of me, woman,” he said into her ear as his friends all chuckled around them.
A man’s voice sounded over a loudspeaker just then, saving Gillian from having to respond to her jealous boyfriend.
“Welcome to another fun-filled day at the races! First up will be our seven-to-ten age group. If heat one could line up behind the starting line, we’ll get started soon!”
Gillian eagerly watched as six children, both boys and girls, lined up at the far left side of the field in front of them.
“Man, I can’t believe how nervous I am for them,” Gillian said with a small laugh. “I don’t even know them and my palms are sweaty.”
Walker grabbed hold of one of her hands and stroked it. “Not sweaty at all,” he declared with a grin.
Gillian rolled her eyes and focused on the field.
Within minutes, the first heat of competitors was off.
Gillian watched in awe as the children raced toward a set of tires.
They had to run through them with one foot in the middle of each and get through the entire row without tripping.
Then they ran toward low-hanging ropes and fell to their bellies and crawled under them.
The next obstacle was a series of stumps at different heights.
They had to jump from one to the next, and if they fell off, they had to go back and start from the beginning.
There was obstacle after obstacle, and it seemed with each one, the course got more and more difficult.
By the time the kids got to the end, they had to climb up a rope about fifteen feet to a platform, where they then went hand over hand from one ring to the next, across to a second platform.
There, they had to jump up and grab a handhold, using their upper-body strength to pull themselves up and over an eight-foot wall.
To get down, they traversed a spider web of ropes to the ground, then leaped over three obstacles before once again getting down on their bellies and crawling in a pit of water and mud under a series of logs, before finally racing to the finish line.
Gillian was exhausted just watching, but every single kid in the first heat finished…and they had huge smiles on their faces to boot.
“They love this, don’t they?” Gillian asked Walker.
But it was Brain who answered. “Yup. A lot of the kids practice for months for these kinds of competitions.”
“What do they get if they win?” Gillian asked.
“Well, everyone who participates gets a small medal,” Brain said.
“Usually I’m against any kind of participation trophy, but in this case, it’s totally warranted.
This isn’t some summer club sport where they stand around in an empty field for a few weeks and get a prize for it.
They work their butts off. But the winner of each of the six heats goes on to the final round, and the winner of that heat gets a hundred-dollar gift certificate to the PX…
the post exchange, where they can buy whatever they want. ”
“Cool,” Gillian breathed. “What heat is your friend’s kid in?”
“Three,” Oz said. “Annie’s last year’s winner. She beat the time of a bunch of fifteen year olds, and she was only eleven. She wasn’t in their competition group, but she would’ve smoked them if she had been. She’s totally gonna win this year too.”
“And her dad’s okay with her doing this?”
“Fletch? Oh, yeah, he’s more than okay with it,” Walker answered. “He brings Annie with him when he and his friends practice the adult obstacle course. I’ve heard her say more than once that the kids’ one is too easy.”
“Jeez, she must be crazy,” Gillian murmured.
“Nope,” Walker said. “Only crazy about being just like her dad. Her mom learned pretty early on that the best way to keep her in line was to threaten to take away her obstacle course privileges if she disobeyed. Worked like a charm.”
“Are you close with Annie?” Gillian asked.
“Not as close as I’d like. Fletch and his team have been around a bit longer than we have, and they’ve cut back on missions in the last few years.
But mark my words, that kid’s gonna be someone special when she grows up.
I don’t know what she’s gonna do, but it’s gonna be something pretty damn amazing. ”
“I’d like to meet her,” Gillian said.
“I’ll make it happen,” Walker told her.
Then their attention was turned back to the field as they watched the second heat of kids run through the obstacle course. It was just as impressive the second time as it was the first.
“Come on, Annie!” Lefty yelled as the third heat got lined up behind the starting line.
“You got this!” Oz called out.
Gillian saw another group of men closer to the field, standing and yelling for Annie as well.
“That’s her dad and his team,” Walker said into her ear.
Not able to stand the suspense, Gillian stood, as did the rest of the guys around her. Since they were in the back of the stands, they weren’t blocking anyone else’s view.
“I don’t even know her, and I wanna throw up, I’m so nervous,” Gillian muttered.
“She’s gonna kill it. Don’t worry,” Walker said.
Then the announcer counted down, and the kids were off and running.
Not only was Annie fast, she was extremely nimble too.
She was the first one through the tires, and she practically threw herself on the ground before using her arms and legs like a piston to propel her under the ropes.
She almost seemed as if she were soaring through the air as she leapt over the stumps.
Her long hair was in braids so it didn’t get in her eyes and they flew up and down in the air as she moved.
Every so often, she’d look behind her at the kids following in her wake. Gillian figured she was checking to see if anyone else was coming up behind her.
Some of the other kids caught up to her as she made her way through the obstacles, and when she got toward the end, where she had to climb to the first high platform, she shimmied up the rope as if she were a little monkey and had done it every day of her life.
“She’s gonna win for sure,” Doc muttered.
Gillian thought so too—but then the little girl did something surprising.
She was about to start across the rings when she looked behind her again. There was a boy in her heat who was obviously struggling at the rope climb. He’d been behind the older kids the entire course, but was still hanging in there.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make it all the way to the top of the rope. He’d make it halfway up then slide back down.
Instead of continuing on through the course, and winning and heading to the final round, Annie let go of the first ring and dropped to her knees at the top of the platform above the ropes.
Gillian was too far away to hear what she was saying, but it was obvious she was encouraging the boy. She ignored the fact that the other kids in the heat had passed her and were well on their way across the rings. All of Annie’s attention was on the boy trying to climb the rope.
At one point, the boy stopped about halfway up once again, and Annie yelled something to him and reached down to grab the rope herself—then she started pulling it upward.
The boy was just hanging on with all his strength, and Annie was bringing him, rope and all, up to the platform.
She turned and looped the rope around one of the poles at the top used for safety, which gave her more leverage and allowed her to pull faster.
Gillian turned to Walker. “Is that legal?”
Walker and the other men were all smiling. Huge toothy smiles that went from ear to ear. “No clue. But it’s not like she’s gonna win the heat, so what does it matter?”
It didn’t matter. Not really. Gillian watched with pride as a girl she didn’t even know went out of her way to help a fellow competitor.
She grabbed hold of his hand when she’d pulled the rope up high enough so she could reach him, and then put her arm around his shoulders when they stood side-by-side on the platform.
They both had some pretty serious obstacles to get through still, and Gillian wasn’t sure the boy could make it.
But after a short rest, she saw him nod, and both he and little Annie moved to the rings.
Annie made it seem so easy to swing to the other platform, but Gillian held her breath as the boy struggled his way across.
But he too made it, with Annie cheering on from the other side.
Annie jumped up and grabbed the handhold and pulled herself up to the top of the wall. Then she balanced herself and leaned over, holding an arm downward. The boy was able to jump up and grab the handhold, but Annie was the one who made it possible for him to get up and over the board.
Gillian figured the boy’s arms had to be Jell-O by then, but he gamely started down the spider web of ropes, Annie right by his side.
They ran together to the mud pit, and Gillian could clearly see the whites of Annie’s teeth shining bright as she laughed and smiled at the boy as they shimmied under the last obstacle.
Then, Annie grabbed hold of the boy’s hand and they jogged together to the finish line, hand in hand. Dead last in their heat.
But neither kid seemed upset in the least.
A man had run out to the end of the field to meet Annie and the boy, and he pulled her into a huge muddy hug.
“That’s her dad,” Walker told her. “He’s got to be the proudest dad out here today.”