Page 57 of Chasing Sunsets

“Excited someone talked to me, I stopped swinging and asked what a wench was. He answered, ‘Some kind of girl.’”

Trent snickered.

“I agreed to walk the plank, a seesaw, and from that day forward we’ve been friends. In junior high, we plotted and planned how to win our crushes and helped each other as much as possible. Then, when we were sophomores in high school, one afternoon after I’d broken up with my latest boyfriend, Brett proposed we go on a date.” The memory sparked so vividly in her mind it could’ve happened yesterday.

“She refused,” Brett cut in.

Kelly smirked. “I told him there was no way I would ruin our friendship by dating. He nagged me for months until I gave in and agreed to go to a movie with him. And from the kiss he gave me at the end of the night, I realized he’d been right all along. We were great together. I considered our relationship infallible because of our history and our friendship.”

She watched out her window to collect her thoughts and prepared for her next words before she faced the camera again. “But I lost sight of the most important part of any relationship, especially a marriage.”

“What was that?” Trent questioned.

“I didn’t have faith in him or myself. I hope other couples who feel they belong together keep looking for help. We’d been to doctors and therapists and none helped us.” She glanced at her husband. “On our day off from the race, we met with a new doctor, and from that visit alone, my view of our situation changed to hope.”

“What kind of doctor?”

“A psychologist.”

“What did he say to change your mind?”

“He made it clear I must trust what my husband tells me is the truth. Such simple, yet life-changing words.”

“Marriage-saving words,” Brett chimed in.

“So you made Brett move out because you thought he was lying to you?” Trent fixated on something negative, of course.

“I requested he leave because I didn’t trust him when I should have.”

For another fifteen minutes, Trent tried to dig deeper. She and Brett fielded questions without revealing her diagnosis.

~

They reached El Pasoat four in the afternoon. Zack filed into the zoo parking lot amidst the other white Audi SUVs. They’d been bunched together on the highway the whole day. A sign for ZOOKEEPER and another for DESERT DRIVER greeted them.

“I’ll take the desert since you drove that last leg today,” Sadie offered.

He did need to stretch his legs. Plus, he felt exhausted. Why did being confined in a car for hours drain a person? “Meet you wherever.”

She hurried the other way.

Posters welcoming contestants led him and the others to a huge rock structure at the zoo entrance. An employee in a brown zookeeper uniform motioned them toward his gate and let them through. Once inside, an official walked to Zack with a folder in his hand. “Locate these twenty animals in order on the list. You’ll find information at each exhibit with the given name of the first one of that species who came to the zoo. Record their name in this. The spelling of the names must match exactly.”

Inside the folder, he found the list, a pen, and a map of the zoo. The park was divided into four areas representing different parts of the world. Desert mountains, brown and lifeless, loomed in the distance. First on the list was a giraffe. He went to Africa where the perimeter of the giraffe enclosure was made of stone and the ground of dirt. A large umbrella and green trees with leaves provided a bit of shade. Four plaques on a small billboard explained about giraffes, without giving the name of the first animal that came to the zoo. So he searched for any clue. Not finding anything around the perimeter, he went inside the building where a large Plexiglas separated zoo-goers from the giraffes. A huge giraffe and baby chomped on fruits, grass, and leaves. A laminated picture of a giraffe on the Plexiglas caught his attention. He went over to the corner and read the sheet, finding a picture and the name of Pixie. He then went to Asia to find a python named Sucker. Big Sally was the first mountain lion in the Chihuahuan Desert. And Mischief, a spider monkey, in the Americas. He returned to Africa searching for a meerkat...and on and on.

Two hours later, he turned in his answers and waited for approval. Maxine came up to the last enclosure. She and her husband were the oldest couple, but that didn’t make them the slowest.

After the official approved Zack’s sheet, he said, “You’ll meet your wife in the snack area.”

“You’re good to go, Maxine,” her official announced.

Zack began toward the food area, knowing where it was since he’d passed it during his searches.

“Maxine, how do you feel about what Jude revealed in the car today?”

Zack turned around to see a camerawoman hurriedly scooting along beside Maxine.

He slowed his steps until they caught up to him. Some couples openly shared their reasons for being apart. Like he and Sadie, Maxine and Jude had not—at least not before today.

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