Page 55 of Ex Marks the Spot
Now the wall around my heart is filled with dents and fissures and I don’t know whether I should repair the damage or sweep away the debris and see what happens.
What Idoknow is that I don’t have the time or proper headspace to think about it right now, so I blot my face dry and turn my attention to more productive things like double-checking our last clue.
Travel on foot to Green Lake Park. When you arrive,
use a marked boat to search for your next clue.
“It doesn’t say where to look. It has to be in the water or along the shore though.”
Court scratches his chin as he scans the lake. “Americans tend to travel counterclockwise, so most of the teams would probably go left. If I was a field producer, I’d put the clue that way”—he points off to the right—“because it would take people longer to find it. What do you think?”
“I think you’ve been paying attention to Xtreme Quest strategy, and I agree.”
Despite our difference in height, it doesn’t take long to figure out how to steer the boat and then we’re pedaling past willow trees and water lilies and countless other plants. The whole place reminds me of Central Park with the way it’s tucked neatly in the middle of downtown Kunming.
“Feeling better?” Court asks a few minutes later. The sincerity in his voice is obvious and I bet if I looked at him, I’d see two little lines of concern resting between his brows.
Maybe that’s why I surprise us both by saying, “Yeah, I just didn’t expect to miss my dad this much.”
It’s only one sentence, hardly a blip out of the thousands that will appear in the closed captioning for this episode, but the editors should put a disclaimer on the screen anyway:Warning:Hartley Billings is about to volunteer personal information, which may result in an actual conversation and/or serious regret. Do not try this at home.
After a brief pause in Court’s pedaling, he extends an olive branch of his own. “How is he?”
“Doing good. Still a huge fan of the show, so he can’t wait to tell everyone I’m on it.”
Chuckling, he says, “Knowing him, he’ll probably cover himself in blue-and-orange body paint for his next marathon, and then when they interview him, the text on the bottom of the TV screen will say, ‘Ryan Billings, whose daughter was on Xtreme Quest.’”
The mental image draws a bittersweet smile because that’s exactly something he’d do if it wasn’t for the accident.
“You’re on the right track, but it’s more like decking out his wheelchair for the adaptive 5K race.”
Court’s head rears back. “He’s in a wheelchair? What happened?”
“Car accident a few years ago. A semi-truck driver veered into their lane.”
“Theirlane? Your mom was in the car too?”
I nod. “The car rolled off an embankment. She lost some function in her right arm, but she’s okay otherwise. Dad was paralyzed from the waist down though.”
“Damn,” he says, mostly to himself. “That’s...” He blinks and shakes his head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It was rough for a while, but it could’ve been a lot worse. And thanks to their otherworldly stubbornness, they both made more of a recovery than doctors expected.”
His lips twitch like he’s fighting a smile.
“What?”
“Hartley O. Billings, always looking on the bright side.”
Once again, how has he remembered something I’d totally forgotten about?
“It’s Ophelia,” I say, playing into the running joke we shared a million years ago.
“It’s Optimist. They just didn’t know how to spell it.”
I roll my eyes but we’re smiling now, and it’s...pleasant. Easy. Familiar. The last day or so has given me a glimpse into what it might’ve been like if we’d auditioned for the show when we were in college.
Traveling together.