Whirlwind 01 - Finish Line - Pt. 02

PROLOG

This is the second part of the first story in my WHIRLWIND series. They are unrelated stories with a common theme; each one is based on a short, slightly unusual courtship, with a primary female character who believes that she cannot find love for some reason -- and a primary male character determined to prove her wrong.

I visited Ireland once, for 13 marvelous days, and was enchanted by the lilting Irish speech. I have attempted to reproduce that in the dialogue of the Irish characters. WORD's Spelling and Grammar Checker hated it. I hope the reader doesn't find it too tedious. If so, please note that in the comments and I will use less of it in the remainder of the story.

In previous writings, I don't think I handled 'flashbacks' well, so I wrote this one which has a number of flashbacks as its core. Be warned. There is also no sex.

I can tolerate few 'Reality' Shows. The AMAZING RACE is a notable exception. There are a dozen different spinoffs of the AMAZING RACE, each featuring contestants from a different country (i.e., Fantastic Race Canada, Fantastic Race Australia, etc., though the original AMAZING RACE is out of America with American citizens as contestants). This story hypothesizes the FANTASTIC RACE with international teams and slightly different rules.

FINISH LINE Part 2

Major Characters:

Lead Singers of the Celtic/Irish singing group 'The Madri-Gals':

Ariana Collins

Marie Kavanaugh

Linnae Jameson

Lavender Renaud

Cassie O'Hara

President and Web Administrator of the Ariana Collins Fan Forum:

Nathan Moore

The Teams for FANTASTIC RACE

(1) German national soccer champion and her husband

(2) Canadian hockey player and his wife

(3) French singer and her son

(4) Japanese pop star and her sister

(5) Captain of New Zealand rugby team and a young man (fan)

(6) American basketball star and young man (fan w/ Down's Syndrome)

(7) Gold medal Chinese gymnast and her brother

(8) Italian Gran Prix driver and his mistress

(9) Russian ballerina and her daughter

(10) American rock star and young man (fan)

(11) Ariana (Irish) and Nathan (fan)(American)

Ariana and Nathan have survived the first leg of the race; in fact they came in in first place. But the race will only get more difficult from here:

CHAPTER 4 [Second Leg (Hawaii to Alaska) -- Ten teams left]

The schedule was so tight that they had practically run out of the theater after the Meet & Greet session, and onto the buses. The only way Daniel had managed to avoid a cast mutiny for skipping the Race screening after the show was to arrange for recordings to be played on the busses.

Linnae was so anxious that the television was on before the door shut behind Ariana, bringing up the rear. Cassie made popcorn and started passing the basket, but within minutes it was forgotten on the floor as the episode unfolded. Curled up in her favorite chair, Ariana remembered....

While they had been the first team off in the morning, there had been more than enough time for all the teams to accumulate at the airport before the designated flight took off... to Alaska. After all too many hours in flight, and Nathan's valiant attempts to learn more Gaelic, they had landed and the obstacles had mounted.

First had come panning for gold, to meet the Earth challenge. Then had come a trek across the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes to the lava cliffs of Mount Katmai for the Fire challenge. Then they had had to raise a Thunderbird totem for the Air Challenge. And they had been in third place when they had gotten to the shores of a sound. Drawn up on the pebbly shingle had been a series of two-person sea kayaks, neatly lined up under the boom cameras, ready for the Water challenge. There were also a line of power boats for the video teams to accompany each kayak, and these had been discretely just out of view of the cameras.

As they raced up, the first team was being dried off and the second team was being towed back to the shore, and it was easy to see why; the water was choppy, with four foot waves driven by huffing, puffing wind from a big, mean wolf. She had just dropped her pack and sighed over the unexpected break, but Nathan had swung off his pack and jogged down to the nearest kayak.

"You are no thinkin o' goin out there now, are ya?" she had asked, incredulously.

"Of course. An opportunity to seize the lead."

"Or be tha first ta drown."

He had grinned at her and offered her a paddle.

She looked at his grin suspiciously. "Hae ya don this afore, then?"

His grin had broadened. "Do you trust me?"

Acutely conscious of the battery of cameras and their open microphones, she had managed to keep the dismay out of her response. "O' course."

So she had been presented with the fastest first kayaking lesson ever, which had ended on the not too reassuring note of, "If we flip over, just take a deep breath, lean as far forward as you can, and I'll right us."

Doubt assailing her every stroke, they pushed off the shore and plunged into the surf. Nathan pointed them into the waves and dug into the water with a will, dragging them far from shore very quickly. After a few hundred yards of wild tossing, the waves lessened and the wind seemed to ease. "The first and last two hundred yards are the hardest. Now just get the rhythm."

So she concentrated on the rhythm he set, digging her paddle in on the left when he dug his in on the right, and trying not to speculate on how deep the water was or how long she might stay afloat in the frigid water if something happened. She glanced up when they were halfway across, feeling wildly elated that they would be nearly done, when something caught her attention. A black shape, like a six foot sail, was coming at them from the right. She stopped paddling. "Nathan, somethin on tha right."

He had glanced to the right, and then stopped paddling. In a perfectly calm voice she heard him say, "Orca. Male. Big one." He had shaded his eyes against the setting sun and called over the radio circuit to their video team, circling a hundred meters away, "Howard, I know you are listening, rogue orca approaching. If he upsets the kayak, take Ariana off first, I'll keep him busy."

More movement caught her eye, and she had to swallow hard, twice, before she could say, "Nathan, more comin in." Going up and down on the waves and rocked by the wind, she couldn't count the shapes, but there had to be at least a dozen. Her legs began to tremble, and she fought the urge to scream for the video team to take them off NOW.

Nathan's sigh of relief was a shock. "False alarm. It's just a pod's alpha male making sure we aren't a threat. He just wants to look us over." About twenty meters away the looming dorsal fin, slender, slick and black as coal, smoothly submerged, and Ariana, despite Nathan's reassuring tone, found that not seeing it was more nerve-wracking than knowing exactly where it was. With hardly a ripple, the orca thrust the front third of its body out of the water less than ten feet away and just hung there, its fist-size, black eye surveying them with an alien intelligence. Nathan had raised his hands and spread his fingers, and she copied him, not sure what good it would do. The whale's body had to be at least as deep as she was tall, and she was certain that one flick of its tail would snuff their lives like wee candles. "Why are we doin this?"

"To show him we have no harpoons. They've probably seen the Eskimo doing subsistence hunting. Or heard about it from other whales." The massive head slid from sight again.

"Heard aboot?"

"Their songs can be heard across oceans. Swim, eat, gossip with your cousins a thousand miles away; the life of a whale."

Ariana screamed as the orca's head appeared again, this time right next to the kayak, rocking it wildly. Its mouth gaped open, showing huge snow-white teeth and crimson tongue. The second scream caught in her throat as Nathan reached out and started to rub the tongue. He turned and grinned cheerfully. "They love their tongues to be rubbed. He must have been released from a marine park."

"An how da ya know tha?"

"My son, Lance, is a marine biologist. He did a summer internship at Sea World. He snuck me in after hours to help with the feeding and the training. They also needed a volunteer to hold a fish in his mouth while 12,000 pounds of toothy muscle rocketed out of the water to snatch it. It doesn't help to close your eyes; trust me on that one."

Terror was rapidly replaced by annoyance, which wasn't helped by a second, smaller whale head rising out of the water and sliding over the side of the kayak next to her. Her Irish femininity took over and she snapped," Don even think aboot it." The whale's face had no expression, but it radiated disappointment as it slid from view. "An can we git goin? We are in a race, ya know."

"Okay. Time to go fella, say goodbye to the pod for us." The larger whale slid from view and she joined Nathan in waving goodbye for the look of the thing and the image for the camera.

They had continued across to be warmly greeted at an Eskimo village where Tom proclaimed them Team Number One, and they were barely able to make it off camera before they collapsed. But that hadn't been the end of the....

"Ariana! Team Number One agin! Twice in a row. That is sooo wonderful!" Cassie gushed. Ariana shook herself, for just a moment she had felt just as cramped and cold as she had when Nathan had lifted her out of the kayak, but she had demurely accepted all of the congratulations, shaken off the only-to-be-expected wheedling for hints about the next episode, and even put up with doing a quick jig with Linnae to the blaring sound system. She had answered their questions about all the tasks over pizza, and had slipped off to her privacy bunk as soon as she could.

There was an e-mail from Nathan. Once again it had been sent one minute after the episode aired. Once again it had an attachment, which she archived without reading. The note was brief, upbeat, and didn't remark at all on the fact she hadn't responded to the first episode e-mail. She stared at it and drifted off thinking about how the day had really ended in Alaska....

The teams had dared each other to try muk tuk, whale blubber, with dinner. She had glared enough that no one had dared ask, and Nathan had declined, quoting Doctor Doolittle - "One should avoid eating one's friends." The other teams had wanted to hear about the orca encounter, and Nathan had described sea kayaking around the Hawaiian Islands in his 'younger days,' as he put it.

The snag had come when the bonfire burned low and the exhausted teams had dragged themselves off to bed down. There was one team left to cross, and race start was to be after sunrise. Each team had a single, small native shelter of hides and whale bone for their use, which left she and Nathan with a dilemma, which he solved by declaring he wanted to sleep under the stars, and mounding furs by the campfire. The shelter had smelled and was less than comfortable, but it was warm and she was deep in dreamless sleep before she could yawn twice.

She had been dredged up from the depths of slumber by a shaking and a whistling, which at first she thought was a storm.

"Ariana, get up. Come see this."

It was Nathan's voice, sparkling with excitement.

"Gae away. I'm asleep. I can no hear ya."

"You won't want to miss this."

Sighing, she had crawled out of the warm furs, and, certain there were no videographers around at this ungodly time of night, was readying a cutting remark, when she emerged into a rainbow.

Sheets of green and red flame darted to and fro across the darkened sky, leaping in curls and waves like the froth on the surf. The utterly gorgeous display was perfectly silent, and lent an unearthly illumination to the land and sea around them. The only sounds were the quiet slurping of the low, slow waves on the shingle, and the explosive little gasps of whales surfacing and submerging further out.

Ariana had stared at the sky, part of her mind just enthralled by the display, and part of her mind wondering what song she would sing to a backdrop like that, and if any effects supervisor could actually duplicate it.

"Sorry to wake you, but I didn't think you'd want to miss it," Nathan had said. For a moment she had panicked, thinking that he might try to kiss her, with all the implications and complications that foreboded, but he had only smiled engagingly, bid her a second 'good night,' and padded off softly back to his mound of furs by the embers in the fire pit.

She didn't remember the rest of the night, except that she had left the flap of the shelter open so she could see the sky as she lay.

Waking in the morning she had wanted a shower, a hot breakfast, and a double strength cup of Irish Breakfast Tea, in that order. What she got were some environmentally friendly, biodegradable, hypoallergenic moist towelettes, runny eggs and charred toast, and some American label tea with a slightly fishy aftertaste.

As they had stood ready to resume the Race, she had turned to Nathan and said, with a sour smile frosted with brittle humor, "Well this answers one question."

"What's that?"

"The race people are no intendin on goin easy on us because we are celebrities."

"I'm wondering how they are going to edit all of this to fit in a one hour episode," Nathan chuckled.

"We're not."

Ariana and Nathan turned to see Tom walking toward them. "This season is exciting a lot of interest. So the Celebrity Fantastic Race is going to be broadcast in two hour episodes." He smiled. "So we have to fill them up with interesting tasks."

"As long as they are no death-defyin," Ariana shot back.

"At least any more death-defying than we've already faced," Nathan added.

Tom smiled wickedly. "No promises. Are you ready to go? You are scheduled to leave in ten minutes."

She had chuckled to herself in her sleep, just before jumping to wakefulness as Marie knocked on her privacy closure and chanted through the intercom, "We are entering Tulsa, and Daniel hae approved a rest stop. Ya kin hae yer waffle this mornin."

[Canadian hockey player and his wife last team to arrive and eliminated]

CHAPTER 5 [Third Leg (Alaska to Okinawa) -- Nine teams remaining]

The theater had had a natural gas leak and the performance had been set back 24 hours, which would use up most of the contingency in the schedule; but it did mean the troupe had a night off and were free to move around the town, explore the local pubs, and try thirty different kinds of chili - including rattlesnake, if they were so minded. It came as a bit of a surprise to Ariana that, when faced with an evening full of drinking and carousing potential, every single one was back well before eight o'clock, and had commandeered the large screen TV in the hotel's bar to watch the Race episode. Ariana perched in the back and practiced smiling mysteriously when teased about how bedraggled she had looked at the end of the last episode.

The nine remaining teams had raced in small hovercraft down the sound, around a scenically rocky headland, over a marshy peninsula to get to the nearest city. Planes, seemingly flown by stark staring mad bush pilots, took them to Fairbanks, where they had to catch a flight to Okinawa. There they had followed clues to a fishing community and Nathan had snorkeled to recover a 'treasure' chest to complete the water challenge, she had juggled flaming torches to complete the fire challenge, they had both sky-dived to complete the air challenge, and then had come what was supposed to be the earth challenge.

They had entered a huge hall with a long, narrow table down the center and the strong odor of tea. There were hundreds, no, thousands of cups laid out in military ranks. The challenge had been for one of them to sample a cup of tea, and then find an identical tea in the mass of cups.

Nathan had looked at her and grinned as he reached up to help her take off her backpack. "So, are yea gonna make yerself comfortable?"

His grin had broadened. "We won't be here long enough. I don't know anyone who can wax as rhapsodic about teas as you."

Under pressure of the scrutiny of their video team's camera and Nathan's grin, she had gravely accepted the cup of tea from the Buddhist monk, inhaled its aroma, sipped it, and returned the cup. She had walked slowly down the table, pausing occasionally to lift a cup and smell it. In less than two minutes, she was certain, and she took the cup back to the monk - who smiled, bowed, and handed her an envelope. She had bowed in return and trotted back to Nathan.

Nathan had applauded, accentuating his beaming smile. Playing to the cameras, she had curtsied, allowed him to help her on with her pack, and they had opened the envelope together. Nathan had announced he knew where they were going, and they had taken off, followed by the glares of two other teams mired in the challenge.

They had arrived at the world headquarters of Okinawan Karate to be told one of them would have to break twelve boards and a concrete block to receive the last clue for this leg..

They had looked at each other and Nathan had grinned and she had gone to sit down. She didn't have any desire to go through the rest of the tour with her hands in casts, and was glad of the chance to rest. Nathan had donned the robe, waved off the attendant's martial arts explanation, and had walked down the line of boards, shattering each one with a different blow. He had grabbed a towel, tied it around his forehead, and, stepping forward with a whip-like lash of his neck, and had cracked the block with his forehead.

He had looked absurdly pleased with himself as he came back and bowed to her, grinning ear-to-ear.

"Don tell me; let me guess - black belt?"

"Yes. Though I am a tad out of practice."

"Ya didna gi me much o a rest.

"We can rest at the pit stop."

They had gotten their clue and were leaving just as Garrett and Jeremy were entering. Jeremy had puffed an excited 'Hi!' as he went by, but Garrett had glowered and said something under his breath that, while Ariana couldn't quite hear it, she was sure it would give either the editors or censors fits. "I hope he tries his haid on tha block, an the block wins," she muttered to Nathan, immediately regretting it as she was sure it was recorded.

They had climbed the cliffs to a war memorial, and been proclaimed...

"Team number one! Oh, Ariana, three times in a row. That's fantastric!" exclaimed Cassie.

"O course it is, tis tha Fantastic Race!" Linnae chimed in.

The troupe was ecstatic, and if she had accepted all of the drinks offered, would have died of acute alcohol poisoning on the spot.

As soon as she could, she slipped out, up a side stair, past security, and to her own room. After the luxury of a long, hot shower, she climbed into bed and got out her laptop, secure in the knowledge Marie wouldn't be up for at least another hour.

The e-mail from Nathan was chatty, non-committal, and said not a thing about not hearing from her at all. As she read the missive, her resolve wavered dangerously, and she almost called him, just to say hello, just to hear his voice. Finally she put the phone away, firmly deciding she couldn't afford to slip and say that she missed him. She debated opening the attached chapter, but finally archived it, shut off the laptop, and turned out the light.

[French singer and son last team to arrive, but non-elimination leg.]

CHAPTER 6 [Fourth Leg (Okinawa to Australia) -- Nine teams remaining]

Their engagement in Cincinnati had been a great success, and the troupe had bowed off the stage to a thunderous standing ovation. Normally they would have done a second curtain call, but the cast and crew had streamed out the back stage door and onto the waiting, idling buses with not a backward glance -- Daniel had announced that box dinners were waiting on the busses, and the TVs were loaded with the brand new Fantastic Race episode.