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“I thought you had a few questions for Neil deGrasse Tyson.”
“That too,” Ali said. “Can I have a Coke, Dad?”
“Yes,” I said.
“What?” Nana Mama said.
I smiled. “The holiday argument gets me every time.”
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and found Damon.
“Hey!” I cried, and I stood to hug him. “Look who snuck up!”
“Hi, Dad,” he said, grinning from ear to ear and hugging me back.
There was a round of hugs and kisses. We heard about orientation, and Ali got a Coke and a bag of salt-and-vinegar chips, and life was good and grounded and solid. The pressure of Bree’s new job drained away too. I could see that in the way she laughed at one of Damon’s tales.
She felt at ease. I did too. A rare thing in those days.
“Hey, Dad?”
Chapter
52
Jannie was calling to me from the fence, so I got up and started down toward her.
“Jannie, you got this,” Damon said, following me. “My friends on my hall are coming to see you smoke them all.”
Jannie laughed, and punched the air before hugging Damon. She has never had stage fright, at least not when it comes to running. In the past year, she’d faced women running for NCAA Division 1 schools, and she’d run well enough to be here.
“You good?” I asked.
“Always,” she said, relaxed. “Coach McDonald’s got good meet and race strategies worked out.”
“What’s the difference?”
“You’ll see. Love you both.”
“Love you too,” I said. “Nana Mama said to run like God gave you a gift and you are grateful for every stride of it.”
She smiled but with some confusion. “Tell Nana Mama I’ll try, Dad. Coach Mac’s up behind you, by the way.”
She trotted off. We climbed back up into the stands.
Clad in his trademark gray warm-ups and a blue hoodie and wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck, Ted McDonald was moving nervously from one running-shoed foot to the other as he spoke to Bree and Nana Mama. In his fifties, with a shock of reddish-gray hair that defied gravity, Coach McDonald had a straightforward style that I appreciated.
“Dr. Cross,” McDonald said, shaking my hand.
“Dr. McDonald,” I said. He had a doctorate in exercise physiology.
“Ready to see a little history made today?” McDonald asked.
Ali had been listening to his podcast, but he tugged out his earbuds and asked, “What history?”
Jannie’s coach said, “Anything can happen under race conditions, but I’ve been tracking her workout times. They’re impressive. She could do something here that would really make people stand up and take notice.”
“Like which people?” Nana Mama said.
