Page 15 of Chasing Sunsets

She’d begun playing soccer at the age of three and continued through high school. She pointed upward and shivered. “Be careful.”

He wanted to give her a quick kiss or a reassuring hug, but having no idea if she would accept or reject him, he chose to run toward the signs leading upward. The posters led him into the stands and through a maze of stadium seats. Once at the top, instead of checking on Sadie’s progress, he listened to instructions from the zipline operator with a headset as another worker helped Zack into the harness. The cable started in the nosebleed section and descended to the lowest seats.

The instructor asked, “Have you done this?”

“With friends.” While in college, he met his best friends in Colorado for a week during the summer, and they’d ziplined one day. “Nothing this long or high. Or with safety cables.”

The safety worker helping him suit up, made certain Zack’s helmet was secure. The other man clipped Zack’s harness to the large zipline cable. “Grab the handlebars and lift your feet.” The two men checked and re-checked the security lines and his harness placement.

“You can stand now.” The instructor pointed to the other side. “You’ll go fast at first. Your speed will automatically decrease toward the end. You don’t have to do anything except hold on. Any questions?”

He shook his head.

The instructor unhooked a stopper from Zack’s cable and spoke into his headset. “Ready. Over.”

At the man’s thumbs up, Zack lifted his legs. The next instant, he sped through the air, the rush exhilarating. He saw Sadie set a ball on the tee. When he’d gotten his first glimpse of her this morning, the circles under her eyes were the deepest he’d ever seen on her. From lack of sleep or something else, he wasn’t certain. He hoped this trip would erase or at the very least lighten them.

~

Sadie almost huggedZack before he took off for the stands. When she’d held her hand out to him in the parking lot, it was the most natural action. She hadn’t planned to do it and couldn’t deny how much confidence his touch gave her.

After looking up once, she didn’t do it again. Just seeing the cables and people streaking across the stadium terrified her. She ran to the first unoccupied makeshift field and did a few lunges. It wouldn’t help if she pulled a muscle on her first day. Warmed up, she backed about six feet away from the football on the tee, then ran forward and kicked.

The ball took flight like a line drive, straight but too low. While she retrieved the ball, a loud whistle and cheer sounded from the left. Someone must’ve completed the task.

She set the football back on the tee and cocked it to the right. The distance on the last kick would’ve made it, now to nail the height. Her next try shot outside the posts. Perfect height and distance though. Her third try worked, and the official blew his whistle and held his arms up. The same signal she’d seen so many times at Zack’s games and on TV. They watched a lot of football in their house on the nights and days Zack wasn’t busy at work with his own team. He’d told her he never really considered another career. His stepfather had been a coach, and Zack knew he wanted to be the same since his junior year in high school.

The official reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. She neared the man and waited for Zack while watching the others kick. A few people stood by their umpires, while others struggled to make their field goal. She counted only six couples. Were the others ahead or behind them?

Two minutes later, Zack jogged onto the field from the end zone and came up alongside her, breathing hard. Heat rushed through her when he put a hand on the small of her back

The official handed them the envelope.

Sadie ripped it open. “Chapel Creek Ranch. It gives an address in Sanger. We need the map.”

They ran out of the stadium side by side.

Truman waited near the car and slid inside when he saw them.

Sadie navigated from the backseat. She’d rather sit next to Zack or drive because sometimes she suffered carsickness in the back. A small cooler and brown sack, that hadn’t been there when they left Dealey Plaza, perched on the seat next to her. She opened the cooler and pulled out water bottles and sandwiches. Chips, apples and protein bars filled the sack. She placed a sandwich and bag of chips on the console between the two front seats and slipped a water bottle into the cup holder. “Lunch is served. There’re also protein bars and apples.”

She didn’t need to ask if Zack was hungry. She assumed he’d eaten breakfast about the same time she did and would be famished like her.

“Truman, would you like some?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I’ll eat at the Ranch. Thanks though. I don’t think prior participants ever offered me food. I appreciate it.”

An hour later, they turned onto the tree-lined drive to Chapel Creek Ranch. They drove through an open black laser gate that depicted a knight on a horse. A wooden railed fence separated the dirt pathway from the vast acres of plush grassland. Dozens of majestic horses were in the meadow, some running, some grazing—a most peaceful scene.

Zack parked by the four other Audi SUVs. Truman followed and recorded them as they ran. They took the pebbled path toward the buildings where signs with arrows pointed left forKNIGHTSand right forSTABLE HANDS.

“I’m good with either,” Zack said.

“You be a knight.” It made sense. He’d always beenherknight.

~

Sadie tracked the markersuntil she came to a stable. Once through the entrance, it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darker inside. One central hallway with a high roof split the middle of the barn. She hurried along the passageway, able to view the spacious stalls and horses on both sides of her thanks to the walls made of wood and iron bars. Three animals hung their heads over the half door on their enclosures. One even nickered when she passed. At the end of the aisle, men and women waited in chairs, some in ranch clothing and others in the same uniform as the officials from the stadium. A man in a cowboy hat and jeans stood and came forward. “I’m Ned. I’ll be your trainer.”

---