Page 68 of The Big Race
Ray laughed. “And we thought you’d be uncomfortable around us.”
“Because we’re garbage men or because you’re gay?” George asked with a raised eyebrow.
“A bit of both, if I’m honest,” I admitted.
Ernie clapped a massive hand on my shoulder. “My sister’s gay. Best person I know. Taught me that people are just people.”
“And as for the garbage thing,” George added, “it pays better than most people think. Put both my kids through college on garbage money.”
We all embraced again, and I was surprised to feel a lump in my throat. In just a few weeks, these men had become real friends. We rode back to the hotel together.
“Listen,” Ernie said, in the hallway outside their room, his voice suddenly serious. “We’ve been watching you two.Whatever brought you on this race—and we can guess it wasn’t just for fun—we hope you work it out.”
George nodded in agreement. “You got something special. Don’t throw it away just because the going gets tough.”
Ray’s eyes met mine over Ernie’s shoulder. “We’re trying,” he said quietly.
“Good,” George said firmly. “Because my money’s on you guys to win this whole thing.”
George pulled a photo out of his pocket, showing us two teenagers. “My kids love this show. Can’t wait to show them their dad made it this far.”
“My daughter too,” Ernie added. “She’s nine, never thought her out-of-shape old man could do something like this.”
“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?” George said. “Showing them what you can do if you try. That you don’t have to be perfect to make an effort.”
Something in his words struck me deeply. Isn’t that what Ray and I had always tried to teach Leo? That effort mattered more than natural talent?
They went into their room to pack and we went into ours. “I’m really going to miss those guys,” I said.
Ray nodded, looking thoughtful. “You know what I keep thinking about? What George said about their kids watching. Makes me wonder what Leo will think when he sees us on the show.”
“Probably wonder how his dads got so old and slow,” I joked.
“Or maybe seeing us in a new light,” Ray suggested. “The way we’re seeing each other.”
As we stripped down and collapsed, I thought about Leo—how he’d grown up watching Ray and me navigate our relationship, learning from our successes and our failures. Had we shown him what was possible through effort andcommitment? Or had our recent struggles taught him that even the strongest bonds could unravel?
The thought of Leo watching us on this race, perhaps seeing us find our way back to each other, filled me with both hope and responsibility. If garbage collectors from Detroit could cross the country to show their children what was possible, maybe Ray and I could show our son that a marriage worth having was worth fighting for.
Chapter 29
Terminal Velocity
When we returned to the Nice airport Saturday morning, our direction card told us to fly to Bangkok, Thailand. We had two travel choices. The first flight went to Paris, where teams had to change planes for a direct flight to Bangkok. The other option was to fly from Nice to Rome and change planes there.
Looking at the flight board, Ray pulled me aside. “The Paris flight lands at Orly,” he said. “See? ORY.”
“And? I asked.
“When we flew in from Caracas, we landed at Charles de Gaulle airport. We were lucky to book on an Air France flight to Nice, because it left from the same airport. But the flight we can take to Paris lands at Orly and the flight from Paris to Bangkok is going to leave out of CDG. We’d have to take a train from one airport to the other. I did that five years ago, remember, when I did that triathlon in Marseilles?”
I looked at the teams all lined up to get their tickets to Paris. “The other teams might not know that, do you think?”
“I think at least one or two might be confused.”
Though the flight to Rome left a half-hour later, the connecting flight from Rome to Bangkok would arrive an hour earlier. “Ciao, Roma,” I said.
One thing you never see on TV is the negotiation to get your cameraman on the same flight. Often when the agent says, “Only two tickets left on this flight,” he or she really means three—including the cameraman.
