Aliona waits for Petter and JSP to give her the okay before nodding and stepping out of frame herself. “All right, girls. Three, two…” Instead of finishing, she points at us, and we immediately take off running.
It feels so silly, but I suppose I understand how showing teams waiting for hours wouldn’t exactly improve the show’s plotlines or enjoyability.
JSP smiles when we plant ourselves on the mat.
“Grüezi. Welcome to Gimmelwald,” the woman beside him says, grinning widely.
“Yumi, Noelle, you’ve had quite a day,” JSP says, his tone measured. “As you know, the team with the slowest time on the via ferrata will be eliminated fromThe Adventureverse.”
I nod, eyes unfocused. Please don’t let this be it. Please.
“With a time of forty-one minutes and sixteen seconds…”
During his classic reality host dramatic pause, the world stops. Blood rushes in my ears as I grind my teeth hard enough to chip them. Forty-one minutes feels like forever.Thisfeels like forever.
“You are…” He looks between us, arching an eyebrow.
I’ve spent years on the edge of my seat, yelling at the screen, cursing the very existence of commercial breaks and cutaways. But I have never wanted to shake Jonathan St. Pierre more than I do in this moment.
“Team number five.”
Yumi and I collapse into each other, with her forehead pressing into my shoulder and my arms locking around her to hold myself up.
“I’m happy to say that your adventure will continue.”
“Oh my God,” I breathe into my hands. As relief and adrenaline both crash over me in equal parts, I can’t bring myself to move. I inhale the sweet scent of the grass and fresh-cut hay.
“Congratulations, ladies.”
“Thank you,” I whisper. Yumi nods in agreement, the movement a massage against my shoulder.
“Would you like to know how much time separated you from elimination here in Switzerland?”
The world keeps stopping tonight. It doesn’t normally do that.
I remind myself to breathe through my nose and focus on keeping my lips closed. Forcing moisture into my drying throat, pushing back on the walls as they close. I am not crying. I am not givingThe Adventureversewhat they want. I will not participate in my own exploitation more than I am contractually obligated to. I am reaching past Jonathan St. Pierre, to the watcher—a flash of self-awareness, a vanishing trace of discomfort for a viewer who has momentarily been perceived.I know what’s happening here.
JSP holds my eyes for a moment before tilting his chin up and relaxing his smile into uncanny fatherliness. “Thirteen seconds,” he declares, leveling us with his gaze. “You certainly are lucky.”
I swallow, threatened by stakes both life-changing and inconsequential. The money, the game, the proof, the audience. The brain gremlins.Is that true? They could just be lying fordrama—choosing an amount of time that could be attributed to the sixth-place team hesitating on a hold.No. I shut the brain gremlins down.
“We’re more than lucky,” Yumi says, taking a deep breath and bending down to scoop up the bag that had fallen off her shoulder. “Thank you, Jonathan.”
He seems placated by her willingness to play along, turning his attention away from me and toward her. “It’s my pleasure.”
“Great!” Aliona calls after a pause, jerking her head back in the direction from which we came. “Come, girls. Let’s have a quick chat.”
I slip my blue windbreaker on, flipping my braids out from beneath the collar with a wave of my hand.
“We’ll have you two seated on these,” Aliona directs, pointing at two overturned wood crates at the crest of a small hill, which I imagine will make it appear that there’s a dramatic cliff directly behind us. To be honest, I’m surprised they didn’t actually seat us at the edge of the canyon. Could be fun to make Yumi cry during our talking head.
I take my seat, scooting it closer to Yumi’s so I can rest a comforting hand on her knee, partially hiding her behind me. Going into a confessional that has an arrow nocked and pointed squarely at her, I want my partner to know that I am here with her and for her.
“Yumi, would you call today an emotional roller coaster?”
“Today was absolutely an emotional roller coaster. Running up to the mat, I had no idea what was about to happen. All I knew was that there was a very good chance of us going home.”
“Was today the most scared you’ve been on an Adventure?”
