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The next morning, Gemini started the race by saying, “Your next clue awaits at the Volunteer Firemen Monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol Building.”
Sadie offered to drive. Each day her mind became clearer and her body fought against the exhaustion of the race. It was a strangely welcomed fatigue.
They left the hotel right at six, not encountering much traffic on the short drive. The capitol came into view from the highway, illuminated with strategically placed lights since the sun hadn’t crested the horizon. Truman picked up his camera to catch the beauty of the Austin skyline. “The capitol looks white from here, but the brochure I read said it was red.”
“Some call it Texas Red or Texas Pink granite,” Zack clarified. “It’s light pink in color.”
“Why is there a red light under the dome?” Truman asked.
“Means either the House or the Senate or both are in session.”
She glanced at Zack. “I didn’t know that.”
He shrugged. “You didn’t take Texas History in college.”
Following Zack’s instructions, moments later they were on Congress Avenue, where the surrounding buildings provided a promenade all the way to the capitol grounds. It resembled the U.S. Capital building in Washington, D.C., in design and exuded history—beautiful, stately, and majestic.
She parallel parked behind Kelly and Brett on a side street. Another Audi pulled up behind her. Within moments, all the racers arrived. The contestants stayed together, keeping on the concrete pathway. Dew pebbled on the green grass, and a slight breeze stirred the leaves on the trees.
As a group, they followed the walkway this way and that, spotting other memorials, and easily found the one they were looking for. The bronze sculpture of a fireman carrying a child in his left arm and a lantern in his right rested on a granite base that had a ring of pillars with inscribed names. Light from a nearby lamppost made the plaque easy to read. Erected by the State Firemen's Association of Texas in 1896, it commemorated Texas volunteer firefighters who died while in service.
She grabbed a clue from the box, brought it over to Zack, and opened it. The instructions indicated they’d be helping Habitat for Humanity volunteers build a house.
As she pulled away from the curb and took a left as instructed by Zack, she noticed no other teams followed.
“We’re the only ones who turned onto this street. Are we going the right way?” she questioned.
“Maybe they’re going to different houses. Ours is definitely this way.”
After two rights and three lefts, they arrived at their destination. Big, full oak trees lined the back of the property, and a concrete slab had been poured. Stacks of wood were in neat piles a few feet away from the slab.
None of the other teams had arrived, so Zack’s assumption must’ve been correct. A construction foreman met them with hard hats. “Thank you so much for coming,” he smiled. “We can always use more help.”
The entire morning and well into the afternoon, they hammered together two by fours, then worked with contractors to set up two walls in the house. The sweltering heat and manual labor seemed less harsh knowing the house would benefit someone in need.
Once the foreman gave his approval on their walls, the official handed them an envelope. They hustled to the car and scarfed down the food in their lunch sack on the way to a parking lot on Congress, near where they’d found the first clue for the day. They hopped out of the vehicle and followed the familiar series signs to find two tasks. LIBRARIAN and PADDLE BOARDER.
Sadie, water bottle in hand, pointed at Zack. “Since you’ve been paddle boarding with your friends, I’m off to the library.”
He hurried away.
She kept to the indicated path until she came upon a modern library, full of windows.
The natural lighting inside, combined with stairs in the center with glass railings, made it airy and bright. A library worker whispered for her to follow him, and he led her to a cart filled with twenty books. Her task was to return the books, one at a time, to their correct shelf. This would take a while. She looked up the books’ Dewey decimal numbers on the computer and found their correct shelving spots first. Since there were multiple floors, she organized the books starting with the bottom floor and planned to work her way up.
Some contestants were randomly picking up a book and individually searching the computer and delivering the book. Certain they would all walk the same distance, in her mind if she started by shelving the farthest distanced ones first, she’d be less tired. Then, when she did get fatigued, she wouldn’t have as far to go. That would hopefully save time. But who really knew?
She went up the stairs, down the stairs. Rinse and repeat. Again and again.
Going down wasn’t nearly as hard, thank goodness. On her fifteenth trip, her legs burned like fire, and she couldn’t quite fully catch her breath. She gripped the railing and dragged herself upward. Karen passed around Sadie, tripped, and dropped her book to catch herself as she fell forward on the steps.
“Oh, shit.” Karen sat on the step and rubbed her shin.
Sadie picked up the book Karen dropped. “Are you okay?”
“Feels like shin splints.” She reached out to take the book from Sadie, an expression of uncertainty and humor on her face. “Whether I’m okay or not is a whole other matter. Thanks for checking on me. I’m going to rest a minute.”
A cameraman rushed up the stairs. “You need a medic, Karen?”
Sadie concentrated on trying to keep a careful and steady, although slower than she wanted, pace in hopes she wouldn’t stumble or have to stop.
When done, her referee sent her to the roof to wait for her partner. She rode the elevator, which they’d not been allowed to use while completing the challenge, up to find three of her opponents. A cooler was there, so she got a water bottle and plopped down on the bench next to Ted. Uri stretched out on another.
Two cameramen moved around them documenting everything.
“Brutal challenge,” Ruben complained from where he sprawled on his back on the rooftop.
“At least we’ve been inside. It’s stifling out here.” She glanced around at the incredible butterfly garden. If her legs didn’t feel like jelly, she’d get up and take a better look.
Instead, she relaxed or at least tried to. She wished she knew who was in the lead of this race and where she and Zack were in the standings, but trying to figure out who led proved futile. The night in San Antonio when she’d returned to her suite to find most of the other women from the race, they’d talked and come to the conclusion they couldn’t even guess who might be in the lead.
A group of participants filed onto the roof from the stairwell, wet from the waist down and breathing hard. Sadie rose and grabbed another water bottle from the cooler, then dashed over to Zack.
“Thank you.” He took the water, opened it, and took a long drink as they rushed to an official who gave them a map to the Sixth Street Bridge. When they headed to the stairwell, she said, “Looks like you all arrived at the same time.”
“We did. We ended up behind a boat moving a house, if you can believe it. No one could pass them because of the boats on either side helping guide it.”
Shadows stretched long in the setting sun as they used the map to direct them. It was well-known the bats living under the Sixth Street Bridge came out each night at sunset. She’d never seen it though.
Two Chasing Sunsets trailers blocked the road. A flag marked the finish. She prayed her legs wouldn’t give out. The respite on the rooftop hadn’t been long enough. She slowed. Zack adjusted his gait to match hers. Considerate man.
People stood on each side of the road shouting encouragement. Gemini made a touchdown signal as they passed the finish line. “Hurry, grab a spot to watch the bats. They’ll be out any moment.”
Sadie wanted to fall to the concrete as she slogged a few steps and leaned over on the railing, relieving her legs of some of her weight. Besides the people on the bridge, bat watchers sat on the grassy banks on either side of the water and others relaxed in small boats.
Another round of cheers signaled a couple crossing the finish.
Gradually, the sky continued to darken as the sun shed its last strength in astounding streamers, almost like ribbons of yellow, streaking upward from the horizon.
“There’s one,” someone yelled.
Suddenly, a cauldron of bats filled the sky. The size of the colony amazed her. She spun and saw the same bat cloud happening on the other side of the bridge.
“You asked me to bring you to Bat Fest a couple of times,” Zack softly murmured. “I’m sorry I never made it happen.”
Eyes on the horizon, Sadie tilted her head and rested it against his shoulder as bats continued to take flight. “I’m glad we’re here together now.”
“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” ~ George MacDonald