Page 88 of The Weight Of It All
I looked over at the Iron Cove Bridge, the bridge I’d driven over countless times, and noticed for the first time what connected the path to the bridge itself.
“Oh are you fucking kidding me? Stairs?”
Reed grinned. He fucking grinned. “Come on. You’ve got this, Henry.”
By the time we got to the bottom of the stairs, I was mentally prepared to die. Reed waited at the first step with me, and together we looked up to the top. “It’s just twenty steps.”
It may as well have been twenty million.
“Tell me,” Reed said. “When you first walked into the gym, on that very first day, how far could you run?”
“Not far.”
“How many sit ups could you do?”
“None.”
“How many steps could you do on the elliptical?”
“About ten.”
“And how many can you do now?” he asked. “In just under two months, Henry, how far have you come?”
“A lot.”
“Are you gonna let twenty steps stop you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“You’ve done over six kilometres, Henry. I’m telling you, you got this. You can do this.”
I nodded. I could do this. Reed was right. I had come so far. With a deep breath, I did the sign of the cross, just in case, and took the first step. Then another, and another and another, and before I knew it, I was at the top, and I was on the home straight. I literally just had to run the length of the bridge, and it was all downhill from there.
I looked up at Reed. “I wanna run to the finish line.”
His grin was breathtaking. “Atta boy.”
So I gave it all I had. I left nothing behind, and I pushed myself harder. And when I thought I couldn’t go another step, I just kept going.
I pushed and pushed and made the bridge, then the final few hundred metres back to where we started.
It almost killed me, but I fucking did it. I could barely stand, my legs were absolute jelly, my lungs were burning, and putting my hands on my knees and trying to breathe was all I could do to stop from keeling over.
Reed put his hands up, victory style. “You did it!”
I put my hand to my chest. “We.” I took a few lungfuls of air. “We. Did. It.”
“Henry!” Anika yelled, and I stood upright just before she collected me in a crushing hug. “You did it!”
“I did.”
She let go of me like I was covered in some kind of contagious bacteria. “Oh my God, you’re all sweaty.” Then she was all excited from a safe distance. “But you did it!”
Some people walked past, and Anika announced to them, “He just did his first Bay Run!”
“Well done. Congratulations,” they said.
I waved them off. “Trying. Not. To. Die.”
