Chapter 63: The 10K Running Race

Saturday, April 16, 2005

The family got up earlier than normal for us on a Saturday because the race was early and the competitors all had to gather well before to be told whatever it was we were going to be told. I didn't know anything about such things, but apparently there was more to it than just running fast when someone yelled "Ready, Set, Go!"

Mom, Dad and I were sitting at the breakfast table when the girls marched in to give me my morning kisses. Donna cheated by breaking step, running ahead, throwing her arms around my neck and kissing my cheek several times. "I LOVE you, Mark. You are the BEST brother ever!"

I didn't want to turn around to look at Donna while she was still kissing me because I could easily imagine that my cheek kisses would turn into mouth kisses, and that wouldn't be good in front of Mom and Dad. I kept looking straight ahead until Carol caught up and gave me my traditional morning cheek kiss.

Mom's reaction to Donna's enthusiasm was, "You must be REALLY excited over Mark's maybe winning the race."

I couldn't see her face clearly as it was too close to that eyeball, but I heard her say, "What? Umm, yes." She might as well have said, "No, I have an entirely different reason for kissing my brother so much this morning." Donna, for all her good points (#4: <Especially her nubbins!>) is not the sharpest pencil in the pack.

#1: <I wonder if it's possible for us to get up in the morning and leave #4 asleep? He could order himself to sleep for a month, while the rest of us just did the usual six hours or so. In the interest of scientific advancement we should try that soon.>

#4: <It's water off a duck's back you guys. I know how much you all liked playing with Donna. I'm the only one honest enough to say it, is all. Mom is always saying we should be honest, so I suggest we start reading a great deal of online porn as it obviously has beneficial effects on our moral development.>

#1: <Shall we ask Mom if she wants an honest, sister-molesting pervert?>

Mom and Dad accepted Donna's transparent cover-up.

Carol stood, and said, "Sorry we're late coming to the table. I had a lot of trouble getting Donna out of bed this morning. I don't think she got much sleep last night. She must've been too excited."

I laughed to myself. After this morning's greeting from her, there wasn't much doubt that Donna welcomed her brother's attention, but had there been any doubt, Carol's comment would've removed it.

The trouble was that Mom and Dad had already been alerted by Donna that something was up. Carol probably hadn't realized that, otherwise she wouldn't have said what she had. I knew Mom and Dad weren't horrified over the idea thanks to the Williams' superb genetic theory, but I didn't want them to get the wrong idea, or even worse, the right idea, so I said, "It's a good thing I got plenty of sleep last night. I'd hate to upset Donna by losing today."

Donna anxiously asked, "You're definitely going to win today aren't you? You did get enough sleep? You feel good?"

I'm sure she would have carried on expressing her anxiousness, but I answered, "Relax, Donna. I'm sure I'll win. How hard can it be to run around a track a dozen times, or however many times it is?"

Donna said, "It's a street race, not a track. That doesn't make a difference does it? Please tell me you'll still win? I've seen you running on the sidewalks and you run well. You'll win, won't you?"

Around a track would've been a little easier for me because I could hold my optimal speed easily, whereas up and down hills complicated my pace setting. Just to play safe I asked her, "The course won't have lots of uphill and downhill parts will it?"

Donna answered, "I don't know the course, but that'd be silly. It'll be reasonably flat. They normally choose routes with small undulations for long races because they make for faster times. That's okay, isn't it?"

I had no idea why small undulations was better than flat [[it's because it varies the stresses on the muscles]], but I said, "It's perfect, Donna. Even hills would probably have been fine, but flat or undulations is perfect. It should be easy for me to win." Actually, it should be even easier than "easy", as at my optimal speed it seems to be effortless.

The girls sat down and breakfast was resumed. Donna became worried about how much I was eating. I had to tell her to relax. The alternative was for me to eat less and that wasn't going to happen.

Dad asked, "Donna, are you okay with the new room arrangements?"

Donna wasn't so much "okay" as "confused".

After a few seconds Dad said, "Hasn't anyone mentioned changing rooms to you?"

"Changing rooms?"

Mom said, "Carol has requested that you move into Mark's room so that Mark can move into yours. Carol wants the two small beds replaced by a double bed so she, Mark and sometimes Julia can sleep together at night. You'd have your own room - at long last - so I'm sure you'd like that."

Donna declared to Carol, "You lucky devil! Umm." Donna looked around the table, then added, "How come no one told me this before?"

Mom said, "It only came up last night and I guess there were so many other things on our minds we forgot. You were watching your DVD or bowling most of the evening, so you were busy too. But now that you know, what do you think?"

Donna was thoughtful for a few seconds, then, "It's a good idea for Carol and Mark, and I've always wanted my own room, but I'm going to miss Carol. It'll be cool for them though. I'm happy for them. When do we swap?"

Mom said, "We're not so sure. There are a couple of complications. Mark's having sex with anyone, even Julia, must be kept secret until after the trial. We were intending to replace the single beds with a double soon but to hold off swapping you and Mark over until the day the trial finishes, but there's another complication that we don't know how will pan out yet. I think we'll wait a few days to see how that's looking. One way or another, Mark and Carol will be sharing a room soon and you'll have your own. Maybe in a couple of weeks, or maybe a month or so. Is that okay with you?"

It had better be okay with Donna or Carol was going to be VERY annoyed. I wouldn't be pleased either. Happily Donna said, "I think it's cool. Just make sure their new bed doesn't have squeaky springs, haha."

Mom was surprised, and quickly asked, "How do you know about squeaky springs?"

"Duh! Because I've seen a hundred jokes about them on TV."

I think Mom wasn't too happy at being "Duh'ed". On the other hand, even Mom knew that "Duh" was a reasonable answer. Mom bit back her first response, then said, "You're right. Sometimes I forget about things like that. You should have been more polite though, just saying 'From TV' would have been better."

"Come on Mom! You're so smart I hardly ever get to outsmart you. Let me have a bit of fun sometimes." Perhaps Donna was smarter than I gave her credit for. Mom accepted that excuse with good grace.

Because I'd started breakfast so much earlier than the girls, I finished before them and began gathering up the dirty dishes to wash them. This was perfectly ordinary behavior, but Carol objected to it this time. She took a hurried mouthful of her breakfast, jumped up and intercepted me. With her mouth still chewing, she resorted to making hand motions to get me to stop. It took her a while to clear her mouth enough to tell me that my housework was now hers. Apparently I wasn't allowed to do it anymore. Imagine that, the LORD was not allowed to do something. Not for the last time, I was sure.

We'd discussed this issue last night but I hadn't thought about it much. Certainly not enough to overcome a lifetime's of habit instilled by Mom. I don't have any problem doing the breakfast dishes or other little things like that. Especially breakfast as I'm up early and often have to wait for the girls to get ready so I might as well do something useful, but Carol wasn't allowing it. I told her, "Don't worry about it, Carol. Finish your own breakfast please. I don't mind doing them and I have nothing better to do."

Carol was better prepared than I thought, "Your Aikido teacher gave you a whole lot of books last Wednesday. I haven't seen you touch them. Have you read them all?"

"Um, no. I've read about half of them and they didn't look very useful to me. I think my situation is too different from what the authors expected."

"But you haven't read all of them, have you? So maybe there's something useful in one of the remaining ones, and I know that now your cast is off you can go for your license. Don't you need to study the Driver Manual before that test? So you've got more important things to do than waste your time doing the dishes."

It appeared that I did. I'm a magnanimous Lord, so I said, "Okay, you've convinced me this time. But please at least finish your own breakfast first."

Mom said, "I'll make sure she does. Doing chores is good for your character, so your father and I won't let you out of all of them. Carol will sometimes have better things to do than your chores too, but Carol makes a good argument in this case so go do your studying."

Carol declared, "I don't have ANYTHING better to do than serve Mark."

Mom laughed, and said, "We'll see how long that attitude lasts. It can be boring doing chores. Doing yours and Marks will get old."

Carol was firmly of the opinion that, "No it won't!"

Everyone knew that arguing was going to be a waste of time so I wandered back to my room, leaving Carol to her breakfast and the dishes. I half expected to hear Donna say, "I'll help do Mark's chores," but she didn't. I guess she hadn't been corrupted by the "serve Mark" bug yet. Just the "be sexually perverted with Mark" bug. She's not totally dumb.

Carol was right that I should read the Aikido books, if only so I could return them to Sensei on Thursday, so I sat at my desk, opened two of them and started skimming.

Several minutes later Mom popped in for a chat. After listening to her for a minute or two, I realized that when Mom's polite verbiage was stripped away, she was warning me that she'll be keeping an eye on me to make sure I didn't take advantage of Carol.

"How can I take advantage of her? I'm asking seriously. I can't take sexual advantage of her. I can't take advantage of her doing my chores because she's already determined to do them. It's too complicated to explain now but Carol needs to do things for me to make her feel good about herself, and about all she can do is chores so it'd be mean to deprive her of those. I'll make sure I'm appreciative though, and try and do things for her to show that."

I could see that Mom wasn't interested in either of these issues. I was at a loss for what else to say, so I asked, "If you can think of another way I could accidentally take advantage of her, please give me a specific warning?"

Mom vacillated, not answering the question. I was at a loss until, #4: <What would Mom think if we got Carol to serve my soccer team naked? Maybe that's what she's worried about, but she doesn't want to give us ideas by giving examples.>

I asked, "Can I guess that you're worried that I might show off to my teammates by getting Carol to be a naked waitress for them, or something like that?"

Mom nodded, "Yes, that sort of thing. It's abusive and..."

"Mom! Stop worrying. Have you ever seen me be boastful, let alone using my sister in that way. It's pointless your worrying about things that will never happen."

#4: <Unless Carol wants us to. She gets off on stuff like that, you know?>

#2: <We know. Let's not complicate this with Mom. You know she doesn't like 'complications' like that.>

Mom said, "Okay. Just remember that I'm watching! Also, Donna seems to be surprisingly affectionate to you this morning?"

Mom's statement was actually a question, so I had to answer. "Yeah. I noticed that too. She obviously doesn't know me very well."

"Oh, why do you say that?" Mom was no doubt expecting one of my usual self-depreciating remarks.

"She spent so long kissing my cheek that I was getting worried that I'd never get back to my breakfast. Keeping me from my food is NO way to make me like her." My waiting breakfast had been a real concern of mine at the time Donna had been kissing my cheek.

Mom laughed, and then said, "How do you feel about her interest? Other than its effect on your stomach, I mean."

"How do you expect me to feel about a girl I love showing she loves me? I know it's not that simple because, just like you probably do, I suspect her type of love might be starting to change. She's been making quite a few sexy jokes recently, so it looks like that topic's on her mind. I guess I'll just wait and see. Maybe it's just a phase, or maybe she'll find a more suitable guy at school? She's still very young, or her body is anyway, so I think waiting and seeing is best."

#2: <By "seeing", do you mean her nubbins?>

#1: <You might want to try spending less time in the company of #4.>

Mom said, "Okay. You seem to have a good attitude and she's obviously happy. Just remember that I've got my eye on you."

"I hope you don't trip, Mom."

"Huh?"

"You're keeping an eye on me for Carol, and another eye on me for Donna. I'd be careful walking around if I was you, in case you trip."

"Ha-ha, funny boy."

Talking about eyes that way gave me an idea. I figured that giving Mom a reminder of my uniqueness wouldn't go amiss, as I liked the idea of her respecting my wishes more for the very likely case of my wanting to do something Mom might object to. I figured that was likely to happen sooner rather than later, especially with Donna being fun to play with. I said, "Talking about eyes reminds me of something. I don't think I've ever showed you this. See how there are two books open on my desk?"

Mom nodded. I continued, "Sit on the bed, hold the books side by side on your lap, like this. Okay. Now watch my eyes."

I had moved my chair so that I was facing Mom, and I started reading the two books. I used either hand to turn that side's page, and carried on reading. After a minute or so, which was four or five pages per book as their pictures made them quick to get through, I looked up at her eyes. She had a look on amazement on her face.

Mom said, "You read both books at the same time?"

I nodded, saying, "You can ask me questions about what was on the preceding pages if you want to test me."

"I'll take your word for it. How on Earth did you learn to do that?"

"I just discovered it one day. Most of the things I can do I discovered by accident. It's very useful when it comes to studying so much, that's for sure."

Mom said, "I cannot imagine how you can do that. Not only moving your eyes separately, but how does your brain manage to think about and remember what you are reading?"

I answered, "How does your brain think about and remember one book? You don't know the how of it and neither do I. I just know that I can do two. I showed you just to remind you that there are more than a few weird things about me. You probably don't have to keep an eye on me as much as with an ordinary boy. If I do play around with Carol or Donna, and even though I love them I accidentally do something I shouldn't, it's not going to be the end of the world. I'll do my best, which I think is pretty good, but if I make a mistake then I'll learn from it. The Williamses are very big on that."

"I half agree with you. But the other half of me is still your mother and I'll jump in if I see something I don't like."

I hit her with a low blow, "The way you did when Carol mentioned finding more girls for me to play with?"

Mom's face turned white. Oops, I'd overdone it. I quickly apologized, "Sorry Mom. I shouldn't have said that. You obviously understand a lot better now than you did then. I apologize, that was an unfairly low blow."

"Yeah, it was. Very low, but a powerful reminder that I have to think before I jump in. I'll try to remember that. Do you mind if I tell your father about your reading two books at once?"

#4: <Excellent! She's asking our permission now.>

"I can't imagine that I'd ever want you to keep secrets from Dad, or vice versa. I think you can safely assume that you can tell him anything you want about me, and he can to you too. It'd be tiresome for you and Dad to be checking every little thing with me all the time, although I very much appreciate that you did ask. If something ever comes up that has to be kept secret, I'll specifically request secrecy at the time, otherwise just share away."

"Good answer. You're learning a thing or two. Okay, I'll leave you to your double reading."

Five minutes later Julia called on my cellphone and we had a quick chat in which she wished me luck for my race. I quietly told her that I'd had some fun with Donna last night, as she'd suggested, and that it'd gone very well judging by Donna's happiness this morning. Julia laughed and said she was looking forward to hearing all the details. For herself, she was excited about her day with Carol. She told me to imagine how much fun they'd have shopping all day together.

I imagined it, and told her I'd rather go to the dentist. We agreed to disagree.

Ten minutes after that Donna stuck her head in the door, "You're definitely going to win, aren't you?"

"Haha. Yes, Donna. Nothing has changed in the last quarter hour that'd make me lose. Can I change the subject?"

"Sure."

I was feeling very mellow toward her, as a result of my seeing her happiness at breakfast and Mom's implied speech about responsibility. The sexual fun I'd have with her will be fun, but it's not a big deal like it had been when Julia first got me to play around with Carol. I was in the mood to say, "I'm glad you love me, Donna."

Donna wobbled a bit, blinked a couple of times, then responded with, "I'm glad you love me too."

"Good. We understand each other then. I WILL run the best I can for you."

"Um, thanks. Mom says we're about ready to go." Donna ran down the hall. I was ready so I followed her more sedately, to save my energy (haha).

Carol kissed me good luck in the kitchen. She was staying here because Julia and Vanessa were picking her up just before the stores opened. The kiss was good luck in itself, being the sexiest she'd given me in front of our parents.

Carol managed to pull me to one side, and whispered in my ear, "She's pretty much ready."

Guessing she was referring to Donna, I replied, "I'm not."

Carol's answer was, "Torturer," then she giggled to soften the accusation.

In the car Donna held my arm. It appears that she's caught that bug too. I hoped she'd let go before the starter's pistol fired.

^

As soon as the car stopped Donna was out and running, talking to lots of different people she knew. I saw her frequently pointing me out to people.

There was a bunch of stuff the other runners and I had to do: get our numbers - I was "58" - attach a little chip thing around our ankles, and listen to the course and safety briefing. We were told not to run into the path of any cars on the streets, which confirmed my opinion that most sports people, soccer players excluded, aren't very bright. Most of it was tedious.

We had time to kill before the race started, so I wandered around trying to find Mom and Dad in the crowd. I was around the back still looking when I heard a girl yell out "Hey, handsome!"

I looked toward the sound and saw a girl some distance away looking in my direction. She obviously wasn't calling to me so I went back to looking for Mom and Dad.

"Hey, handsome!" was repeated even louder. I looked again, and she motioned for me to come over. I pointed at my chest, and she yelled, "Yes, 58."

She was a fair distance away, which explained the "handsome" mistake, so I trotted over.

When I got closer she called out, "Why didn't you come the first time I called?"

I told her, "You called out 'Handsome'. How was I to know that was me? You should have called my number."

"You were side-on so I couldn't see it. The race starts in ten minutes and all runners should be in the starting area, not wandering around back here." She was young but presumably still some sort of official since she was carrying a clipboard and wearing the colored bib (I think they call it) which indicated officialdom.

"Oh. Sorry, I was looking for my parents."

I took a few steps back toward the start line, then had to stop. The girl was in her early-20s, I guessed, and she was quite good looking so I doubted she needed to flirt with every guy who crossed her path. Not to mention that there were handsome, fit, young guys all over the place. Nearly all of whom looked a great deal more impressive than me. They had sleek tops and shorts, fancy shoes, and for all I know, special 'go faster' underwear. I had on an old T-shirt, my usual baggy shorts and old running shoes. Pasty, white legs, and an even pastier right arm completed my less-than-impressive look. At school I was used to girls coming on to me just because I'd been in the newspaper, but that didn't seem the case here, so out of curiosity I asked her, "Why did you call me handsome?"

She laughed and said, "Gee, maybe because you're handsome. I like looking at handsome guys."

I laughed back and told her, "I hope you find your glasses," as I wandered off.